http://elsewear.wordpress.com/2008/07/27/londons-secret-war/ musings of the lazyst environmentalyst Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:49:06 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 http://elsewear.wordpress.com/2008/07/27/londons-secret-war/#comment-1908 ClareSnow Wed, 30 Jul 2008 01:57:30 +0000 http://elsewear.wordpress.com/?p=547#comment-1908 Money's always problem for libraries, rural ones especially. Tell the library this book will be popular! Does your son's school have a better library? Money’s always problem for libraries, rural ones especially. Tell the library this book will be popular! Does your son’s school have a better library?

]]> http://elsewear.wordpress.com/2008/07/27/londons-secret-war/#comment-1905 Stonehead Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:20:51 +0000 http://elsewear.wordpress.com/?p=547#comment-1905 I only wish our library up here in rural Scotland could get more books in. It's about the size of our living room, is only open four or five times a week for two hours at a time, and its reading stock dates almost entirely from the 1980s or earlier. When you ask the librarian to get books in on loan, they're never available—reference books don't get bought as people don't use them any more; fiction and non-fiction are stocked on the basis of "if it's popular, we might stock it"; and in any case, "there's no budget". And never try to point out the obvious flaw—that a book can never become popular if it's never on the shelves. It's all a tremendous disappointment as my mother was a librarian, a large proportion of my childhood was spent in libraries, and I've largely educated myself via libraries. I only wish our library up here in rural Scotland could get more books in. It’s about the size of our living room, is only open four or five times a week for two hours at a time, and its reading stock dates almost entirely from the 1980s or earlier. When you ask the librarian to get books in on loan, they’re never available—reference books don’t get bought as people don’t use them any more; fiction and non-fiction are stocked on the basis of “if it’s popular, we might stock it”; and in any case, “there’s no budget”. And never try to point out the obvious flaw—that a book can never become popular if it’s never on the shelves. It’s all a tremendous disappointment as my mother was a librarian, a large proportion of my childhood was spent in libraries, and I’ve largely educated myself via libraries.

]]> http://elsewear.wordpress.com/2008/07/27/londons-secret-war/#comment-1901 Julie Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:56:50 +0000 http://elsewear.wordpress.com/?p=547#comment-1901 This sounds really good - I'm going to make an effort to get hold of a copy! This sounds really good – I’m going to make an effort to get hold of a copy!

]]>