I occasionally get flattering feedback from my readers saying how readable my articles are even when I venture into quite esoteric country in search of our history. That's nice and I appreciate it but if any one factor deserves the credit it is our tradition of public libraries. I think you may have an idea where I am going here so I'd better start by making it quite clear that I place no blame on our Local or County Councillors.
Like me, I am sure you noted the news early in January that it is now official, and that amongst others, Barrowford and Earby libraries are being put up for sale. Eight year old children who want to read, and despite what many would have us believe, there are still plenty of them, will no longer be able to do what I did over seventy years ago, go into the public library in these towns and take home good books to read. I can still remember the thrill when, after reading my share of Percy F Westerman and Shalimar I discovered that there were things called 'non-fiction' books and there were thousands of them! I started on the shelf nearest to the lady librarian's desk (A Fearsome Woman!) and started by immersing myself in lighthouses. From that day on I had a good working knowledge of them and have never forgotten taking that first book home, I can remember my dad being quite impressed.
At the moment we are being treated to the Thoughts of Our Leader, Mrs May who tells us that she wants to make this a 'fairer' society and yet at the same time her government is starving our local councils of funding to such an extent that if they don't close down essential facilities like public libraries they will go bankrupt. I heard from a friend only yesterday that staff at the libraries in Colne are being forced to re-apply for their jobs! Why on earth should someone doing an essential job like looking after a library have to do this? I assume that the same thing is happening at Barlick and the other libraries as well. Don't the politicians realise that the provision of library facilities is an essential part of good education and the nurturing of young minds? We are told that one of the reasons for the falling of productivity in Britain today is the fact that workers aren't 'skilled' enough and that standards of literacy and numeracy are falling in school leavers. Are our leaders so dense that they can't make the link between 'skill' or more accurately 'learning' and the erosion of library services?
If I sound angry it's because I am, in fact I am enraged by these policies. Let's not forget where all this austerity started, greedy financial institutions who when wrongly freed from proper regulation by bad governance set out to fill their boots with money and in the process broke our credit system in 2008.
My daughter Susan doing her homework in the library in 1976.
