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Libraries Under Threat

Maurice

Those items are for proof of ID and your address not for proof that you live within Birmingham.
 
Phil:

Well that rather rules out registration online, but next time I'm in Brum, probably October now, I will go and see what they say.

Maurice
 
I get a headache very quickly using electronic media and then a migraine but not with a book.
I like having books around my house. I find them comforting and bring back memories, like the one inscribed to my Nan from her granny and to me from people long gone. You can say you can pick up diseases from anything but they allow libraries in hospitals. Cov Libraries hold functions, I read poetry in one, we had music, socities meet there, locals can meet there. As I put in a different post, the beautiful city library was bulldozed and it has been rehoused in what was the Locarno dance hall.
The archives and research dept is nowhere near it relocated in the Herbert Art Gallery, is is hot noisy, gets cigarette smoke from the students outside and is open on less days.
I have just been turned down for a job application at University of Warwick library. Which is in Cov. I had to apply on line it took me 5 days to work out how. But I guess that's progress.
Each to their own but you can't swat flies with a Kindle. Best Wishes hope your library stays open.
 
My local library is closing today for an hour or two at lunchtime for a staff briefing. I don't know if it's the same one as mentioned in an earlier post but I would suppose all of the local libraries in Birmingham are getting them. They have had a sign up for a while telling library users that they will actually need their card if they want to take out books or use the computers starting next week. I think this might be the reason for the briefing. It may just mean that they're putting in self-issue terminals for books.
The problem with Birmingham Public libraries is that so many of them are housed in old buildings that no-one has really bothered to maintain. My local one was closed for several months a few years back while they made essential repairs and I suspect it will need more work at some point in the future.
There is a future for small libraries. The government is starting to make noises about "communities" and providing "local facilities". This could be a return of the old community centre that provided meeting/sports hall, council offices and other stuff in the 60s/70s. Trouble is, most of what those provided are now commercial rather than social products. If they try that again, it could be more of a shopping mall than a community meeting place.
 
I wonder if sometimes it's the people who run the library who add to some problems some of you seem to be expreriencing? When we were initially tracing my birth family, which is still ongoing, some librarians would bend over backwards for you whilst others were less than helpful. I was going to say that on the whole, the smaller the library the more helpful but the exceptions to that rule are Solihull and Cardiff and most staff at Cov. The good thing we found about smaller out of the way libraries is that the rules seem to get to them later and they tend to use their discretion like what you can access and the computerisation gets to them last. I have a library ticket for Worcester Archives but they know where I live.
 
I think there's an element of that at times Nico. On visits to my local library I've not always been impressed by the service but on others I've been very impressed depends on the person.There were guidelines set out in 2010 by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, but wonder if all libraries ever applied these. https://www.cilip.org.uk/sites/defa...a_good_library_service_CILIP_guidelines_0.pdf

Those guidelines mention the legal requirement on local councils too:

ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1390825280.727895.jpg

Wondering how councils got around that one when they closed local libraries, what was the case made for closure?

Viv.
 
I reckon If I had have got that job Viv the users would be telling me to shut up!
There used to be a mobile library came to my parents and in a Cumbrian villagthe library is part of their school. Solihull library had a charity card and gifts stall within it when we went and there is a cafeteria and the theatre all in the same building. Cov library was and maybe still is home to the loneley or homeless people who come and read the newspapers in the warm. I recall large groups of young non British people chucked out as they were using it as a noisy place to congregate.You can't beat the smell of an old library though. I wonder where the smallest library is? Upton on Severn was small and Cleobury Mortimer, Knowle and Ludlow. What they lose on siize they make uo for on willingness to help.
 
Jayell said:
Lucky you Maurice. I had access to it for a short while when it was on trial, but can't get it through Torbay Libraries.
Click to expand...

Why not try Devon libraries? As you are in Torbay then you need to make a visit to Totnes, Newton Abbot, Dartmouth or Teignmouth.
 
Alan, I don't think any of the libraries you mention would have access to the Gale 17/18/19th century newspapers online. With the Torbay library card I get access to the Times Digital Archive plus Newsbank but not the Gale Newspapers.

As to the debate as to Kindle or a paper book - I personally would go for the paper copy any time, and I use my library regularly. Over the years the number of people using it have decreased, maybe because of new technology, and also the number of staff are less but those that are available are always very helpful.

Judy
 
Jayell, I think you just it the nail on the head. The subject of this post is "Libraries under threat", as you say, the number of people has decreased, maybe through technology. That will increase, so why do we need all those big buildings. Also, what about all the trees that are need for books, papers and magazines. Personally I find Kindle excellent.
 
Thanks Maurice. I'll look into this further, as I am not allowed access at home to all those listed with my Torbay Library card. I think they are probably only available to view in the library. By the way I have now applied to join a Lancashire library!

Judy
 
My grandson is still in nappies and he shows me how to use his dadgy's Ipad, he 'makes a cake' with it 'sweeps the yard', escapes from chimpanzees, names the farm animals in more than one language. He does like books and he likes to be read to, but his consentration is short lived and goes back to the Ipad, he says mamma dadda and I pad.
 
Charlie said:
I think basically it boils down to "Use 'em or Lose 'em".
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Charlie

They would be pretty hard to use if they are closed down already, I'm of the opinion that any falling figures in Birmingham could be put down to closures. As I have already said the contents of the libraries can be moved to other buildings such as community centres, but that doesn't save the buildings does it?
 
No Phil. The Cov one was bulldozed, I hoped they kept the insides of it somewhere.
They unnearthed some possibily Carmelite ruins when they did the deed, which halted work for a while, then they grassed round the ruins, and folk ask why bulldoze the library then. Then they revamped Broadgate for the umpteenth time and built Cathedral Lanes shopping centre which is a partial white elephant, with a giant beduin style tent canopy, which they have now removed. As you say it doesn't save the buildings.
 
Our small local library closed, the 60's building has been sold and is now a conference centre. The locals did not want to lose the facility so volunteers now run the library in a room at the village hall. We have now lost our police station, library and fire station (so Stratford on Avon could have another boat).
 
Yes, Anne, police stations and fire stations are just as much at risk, though generally the buildings don't have that much appeal.

For the last 20 years or so, central government has boasted that they are decentralising things and putting decisions in the hands of local communities. Meanwhile local authorities are centralising things and closing all the buildings!

Maurice
 
I was going to say that too but I would be going off topic. Cov lost all it's sub police stations bar Fletchampstead. They are still there though used as other things. There iron work and woodwork was of course blue. Berkswell has become a posh house. I think that comes under Brum. But the ancient cattle pound remains.
 
It seems a lot of the smaller libraries are now being run by volunteers, with reduced opening hours.
I hope there's enough will and interest in the community to save Spring Hill - I'm guessing the building is Grade II? Or is this another question I'm going to regret asking?
 
Charlie said:
It seems a lot of the smaller libraries are now being run by volunteers, with reduced opening hours.
I hope there's enough will and interest in the community to save Spring Hill - I'm guessing the building is Grade II? Or is this another question I'm going to regret asking?
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Correct it's grade II but i'm wondering why Tescos haven't said anything as yet as their money helped refurbish it..

https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/articles/04232-tesco-awarded-for-listed-library-development
 
I understand that Spring Hill Library is a Grade II* listed building described as such here,

Grade II* buildings are particularly important buildings of more than special interest; 5.5% of listed buildings are Grade II* (extract from English Heritage Site). So lets just wait and see if the council just board it up and wait for it to fall down, as that's it's usual procedure.
 
Phil said:
I understand that Spring Hill Library is a Grade II* listed building described as such here,

Grade II* buildings are particularly important buildings of more than special interest; 5.5% of listed buildings are Grade II* (extract from English Heritage Site). So lets just wait and see if the council just board it up and wait for it to fall down, as that's it's usual procedure.
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quite right phil...grades mean nothing really.. it does not keep them safe or mean they must stay in use..as you say it can just be boarded up and wait until its in such a state that it will either fall down.. or be taken over by undesirables and suffer a fire as so many buildings have done in the past..
 
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It's criminal if this building suffers the fate of so many others. What a great red-brick Gothic piece, like the Law Courts and Central Hall. When they built that, they were making a statement. What's sad is that the pictures show very little else around it. No wonder it's future as a library is in question. Where are the users going to come from? Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
It's criminal if this building suffers the fate of so many others. What a great red-brick Gothic piece, like the Law Courts and Central Hall. When they built that, they were making a statement. What's sad is that the pictures show very little else around it. No wonder it's future as a library is in question. Where are the users going to come from? Viv.
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There's a massive tesco that's been built around it, they even share the same entrance..

https://www.flickr.com/photos/martin_hartland/5301437230/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/13974995@N02/6231889888/in/photostream/

The council have a huge I T office complex facing it also.
 
Thanks Brumgum. Hopefully it has plenty of users from the shoppers and office workers to keep it afloat. Although not ideal, having a large supermarket next to it surely must help. But I somehow doubt it, it still faces the challenges of the internet etc. And it must be a very high maintenance building. Viv.
 
hi viv and brumgun
what the hel of these planners doing well it springs to my mind tat the planners are far ahead of them selves today ;
and i mean that tastily when i say that ; because i have grown up there just along the rd i can tell you i know the area like the back of my hand
i have seen the whole are demolished from hockley right up to the hagley rd and i can tell you excatly shop by shop names going back to do dot
one by one but still i will not waste time just jet as i have to rae down to my office in tyseley
but when i say about the demo of the libary where i see it as a stepping into the future quicker than you may think because when that whole area was rebuilt
and different people and abit of a new generation it is a ghost town and i supect hardley anybody is useing it and to the fact as i am trying to hurryup
and trying to make my point briefe is that they built a big super market at five ways many years ago and its the whole area of the hingestion street right up to the hagley edbaston inclunding spring hill and infact the whole part of that side of the city shop there and then to try and keep them focused on there shopping needs
they will demo the libary and give them back there tesos as it will be still central to one and all of the central area because remember there plannes are for the new s
style trams or trains from central will be cut into five ways and hagley rd thats there plann so if you think about it and i presume people know more than me as they live in brum will see the reasons as to why the demo of the libary making space for the tesco boom best wishes astonian;
 
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