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Lost debate on libraries
• COUNCILLORS missed an opportunity to find out exactly what is proposed by Camden’s Library Service.
When the Grow Your Library document was under discussion at the Camden’s culture and environment scrutiny committee on Tuesday they exhibited all the symptoms of having had a long, hard, day and were only too eager to end the proceedings.
The committee did show a little animation at the prospect of some redundancies within the service, as any responsible employer should. However, far less concern was expressed for the very large number of private sector workers already jobless and the even larger number of them on the brink of unemployment.
These newly-poor people deserve a library service which reflects their needs and there was little in the document or Tuesday’s discussion to give them comfort. Many ordinary people are suffering and will continue to suffer for a considerable time.
The library service should to do more than pay lip-service to the problem. Perhaps it intends to but the councillors did not find out.
Councillor Julian Fulbrook’s advocacy of the noisy library theory (allowing food and mobile phones, for example) came as a complete surprise, as I believed this had been buried within Camden. The widespread condemnation of the idea from the New Journal readership seems to have had no effect on him.
To adopt it would spell disaster for most of Camden’s libraries (not all).
Councillor Nick Russell’s digging out of information on wifi within Camden’s libraries demonstrated that the committee is capable of operating as a scrutiny committee, if it is interested in the subject. Sadly, little interest in the borough’s libraries was apparent.
Alan Templeton
Chair, Camden Public Library Users Group
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