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Where are we to go?
• SO Mike Clarke thinks silence in libraries is not golden but boring. What he describes as “friendliness” is in fact its opposite, selfishness.
He wants to curry favour with people who are loud and often profane and who, when asked to moderate their behaviour, tell you they have a right to their behaviour, and others have no right to tell them what to do. They tell us to go elsewhere (not always in those words) if we don’t like it, but, if Mr Clarke has his way, where are we to go?
It may come as a surprise to Mr Clarke, but those who want a bit of peace and quiet are not all unpleasant, upper class, or old. What about people (teenagers included) who live in small, crowded homes where others are playing music or watching TV or shouting into telephones? Even railway companies, contemptuous of the public as they are, have recognised this need and provided quiet carriages on most trains. If Mr Clarke introduces noise into the libraries, will the council provide other quiet public spaces?
The answer to the sort of books people want is a simple one: more of them. Nowadays many of our libraries have fewer books than do several of my friends and neighbours.
They are like shops with half-empty racks and walls.
Mr Clarke may be a fan of technology, but I doubt the library will have any more success with this in future than it has had in the past.
The current computer system is very faulty. Among other things, it occasionally does not record that a book has been checked out, therefore making it possible for the borrower to keep the book undetected.
It is not kept up to date and it frequently lists books that have been lost or stolen.
When I wrote to the library about its failure to prevent or prosecute theft, I was given a self-serving public relations-type answer about the wonderful work the library does in this area.
Many would agree that what we want from Camden is not “friendliness” but competence and honesty in its management of our money and recognition of the needs and values of all its citizens.
RHODA KOEING
NW3
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