http://www.barnet.gov.uk/press_releases.htm?id=2179
This seems to confirm a fear that I've had for some time. To quote the press release :-
North Finchley, Mill Hill and Edgware Libraries have all been designated as Phase 3 Children’s Centres, making children’s centre services accessible to all young children and their families. The new centres aim to provide a universal service to all children under five years and their families alongside the development of targeted, preventive services, not solely for those living in deprived areas.As well as delivering a wide range of services in education, social care, health, housing, welfare and employment, the Phase 3 Children's Centres will offer specialisms in domestic violence, pre-school assessment for under fives with complex special needs, supervised contact for children in care and work with teenage parents.
Surely this sounds like a good idea, you may say? Yes there is quite clearly a need for this type of service, but at a library? To me a library is a place of serenity and calm, where you can go to read a book or borrow a book. When I was growing up, the youngest of six children, I'd often go to the library to do my homework in peace and quiet, without the day to day distractions of home life. It seems to me that Barnet Council have no concept of the value of such a place. Do you think that provision of the services designated above is conducive to quest study?
Councillor Andrew Harper, who is repsonsible for this policy, seems to have no understanding of the value of reading. Every council service that is stuffed into a library, reduces the amount of space available for books and available for reading. It is a cut to the library service by any other name. I can foresee a date in the not to distant future, where the one thing you won't be able to do at Libraries in Barnet is read books.
2 comments:
It gets worse when you look at the opening hours. For example, Osidge Library seems only to want to be open to those who don't work, are on benefits or retired.
The opening hours are set to suit the staff, nice 9-5 shifts. Only one day out of seven is it open to 8pm. It is closed on Sunday and on Saturday it closes it's doors in the middle of the day, throwing everyone out, so the staff can have their lunch! (how 1970s is that!)
The Council does seem to care that the people who generate the wealth to pay the taxes to fund the Libraries should can't access them for more than a couple of hours a week.
Unfortunately, no sign of Cameron style post bureaucratic government here....
Ooops!
"The Council does seem to care" = "The Council doesn't seem to care"
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