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Library Of Birmingham 2013

  • Thread starter Thread starter BernardR
  • Start date Start date
personally I could not volunteer to do a job (unpaid) to replace someone who has been made redundant. I think the council's egos blinded them to the financial building and running costs and now they have problems.
 
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Vivienne14 said:
Understand Lyn. Shambolic given it's only been built 18 months. Maybe this campaign is to put pressure on Council. Hard to say where it will all go though. Viv.
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Don't want to give BCC ideas but this is how libraries in Devon are now managed!!
 
cookie273uk said:
personally I could not volunteer to do a job (unpaid) to replace someone who has been made redundant. I think the council's egos blinded them to the financial building and running costs and now they have problems.
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thats my principal eric....totally agree with you

lyn
 
The new and reduced opening hours for the Library of Birmingham from Monday 20 April 2015 will be:

Mondays & Tuesdays: 11am - 7pm
Wednesdays to Saturdays: 11am - 5pm
Sundays: CLOSED


We will cease opening on Sundays (effective from Sunday 19 April 2015)


 
A positive aspect of the New Library has been the Sunday opening, but this will cease on the 12th April. The new library, restricted hours, will come into force from the 19th April. Those who who use the library for research will no doubt find their task further handicapped.

Ray Shill
 
well i cant print what i think on here maurice...i feel sorry for the folk who work mon to friday as they now only have a 6 hour window on saturday to visit and of course as soon as the staff are cut from 180 to just 80 i can only imagine it will be chaos..lord knows how long we will have to wait for appointments now in the archives dept..

Mondays & Tuesdays: 11am - 7pm
Wednesdays to Saturdays: 11am - 5pm
Sundays: CLOSED.
 
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The Sunday opening hours were new for this new library and I can't see that many will miss them that much. I'm surprised that they're losing 9-11 a.m. but it could have been worse. As I understand it the 180 staff jobs were never completely filled (more like 100-120). There was a suggestion that the Heritage staff would not be working at all on the weekends but I don't know if that will be happening. You might want to find out if you're planning to get anything from archives on Saturdays.
 
have to disagree with you wam try telling those who tuned up last sunday that sunday opening will not be missed..have you read the link i posted on post 307...around 70 turned away on sunday in the first half an hour alone including a lady who had travelled from ireland....this is not some little back street library its birminghams main libary to which we are getting less and less access to..to give those working full time only 6 hours at the weekend to visit is just not good enough and i will not be swayed on this..

lyn
 
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Those of us who travel a long distance and are able to do so infrequently - in my case Birmingham is 1800 miles from my home - often don't have much choice about dates. I've always thought also that fiction, reference, and archives should be kept in separate buildings. Fiction serves the local population and little else. Reference is quite often duplicated by other authorities, whereas archives unique to to that area and cannot be consulted elsewhere. Staff are for the most part assigned to separate divisions anyway. Very few pieces of equipment are shared between different divisions, whereas all three divisions can share the same computer system. For instance over 15 different local authorities in the London area use the same shared system.

In my ideal world, archives would have a much higher priority than fiction. It seems the new Library of Birmingham lacked a bit of forethought for all the money spent on it!

Maurice
 
Just before the previous library closed for demolition I was able to go and research at nine o'clock, there were queues outside and people lined up to go in.
I haven't been to the new one for a while for family reasons. I am annoyed at not being able to access the books that used to be on open access as they are enclosed in the electronic shelves.....even more annoyed that the hours are being cut! I thought I had misread eleven o'clock!
rosie.
 
Astoness said:
have to disagree with you wam try telling those who tuned up last sunday that sunday opening will not be missed..have you read the link i posted on post 307...around 70 turned away on sunday in the first half an hour alone including a lady who had travelled from ireland....this is not some little back street library its birminghams main libary to which we are getting less and less access to..to give those working full time only 6 hours at the weekend to visit is just not good enough and i will not be swayed on this..

lyn
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Only two years ago, I would have been surprised to see any public building open on a Sunday. Most of them don't open on Saturday. Of course, as a public resource, you'd expect it to open out of usual business hours but Sundays...? As to the suggestion that they would have done better to separate the parts into different buildings - the council are trying to reduce the amount of property they own and to suggest they create three new buildings just wouldn't wash. Out of interest, others here seem to have been to many different archives in different places for various reasons so they should know what the usual hours for such facilities are. I always thought such things used to be open less often than usual public buildings and have large parts available to members or by appointment. I could be wrong but I just looked at the website for the British Library and that's how they do things.
 
wam said:
The Sunday opening hours were new for this new library and I can't see that many will miss them that much.
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This buildings in MORE than a library, it is now a Birmingham tourist attraction.

I go up to Birmingham a lot taking photographs, particularly at weekends, and there are always hundreds of people in Centenary Square and nearby, and many of them want to go up to the balconies and gardens on the 3rd and 7th floor of the library.

I help on Trip Advisor a lot giving advice to people coming to Birmingham and looking for things to do.

There is not a huge amount to do in the city so ever since the library has opened I have been encouraging people to go there and see the views of the city from the balconies.

By closing on a Sunday you are taking away one huge tourist attraction for the city.

Sadly the library was designed too "open plan" inside. If they had designed it like the ICC they could still have allowed people into the building (or parts of the building) to go to the gift shop, café, balconies etc, but closed off other parts of the library. They would have needed just a few security staff like they have in the ICC.

Sadly it is so open plan that once you are inside you can get to almost all of it which provides security problems.
 
I don't understand the fuss that the Library has reverted back to not opening on a Sunday. Someone comes from Ireland, and doesn't have the wit to check the opening hours! There are more important things to shout about. This Library was a folly from the start. The cuts are across the board. As a Birmingham City council tax payer, my priorities lie elsewhere. Cuts to social care, social services, children's care, community services, Ring and Ride, who have already laid off drivers, and our local libraries, not back street, but the backbone of local history. There are so many attractions in Birmingham, I think we can survive the library closing on a Sunday.
 
Article on the peaceful protest by the Friends of the Library of Birmingham

https://www.itv.com/news/central/2015-04-20/protesters-condemn-library-of-birminghams-reduced-hours/

Protesters gathered outside the Library of Birmingham this evening following in opposition to new cuts to the Library's services.
The Library's opening hours have been reduced, meaning it will now be shut on Sundays. Protesters say Birmingham's economy will suffer as a result.

"It's a place for visitors to come to and those visitors are spending money - it's an uneconomic decision to close that library."
​
– Ann Gallagher, Friends of the Library
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just when you think it cant get worse...opening or should i say closing times for the archives section...the wolfson archives search room is CLOSED on mondays

For enquiries contact archives.heritage@birmingham.gov.uk and to make a Wolfson Centre appointment please contact archives.appointments@birmingham.gov.uk

Birmingham Archives and Heritage Online Catalogue | Online Library Catalogue


Our Service is split into two areas



  • Heritage Research Area for printed local and family history, genealogy, maps, local newspapers
  • Wolfson Centre archives search room for archival collections, photographs, early printed material (reader’s ticket required)

Opening Hours for the Heritage Research Area are:


Monday and Tuesday 11am - 7pm
Wednesday to Saturday 11am - 5pm

Opening hours for the Wolfson Centre for Archival Research are:

Tuesday to Saturday 11am - 4pm

Opening hours may differ at times of public holidays

Keep up with what’s happening in Archives, Heritage and Photography with our Iron Room blog and Iron Room Twitter
 
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There was a power cut last week. An announcement was broadcast as I was leaving - "An incident has been reported". The escalators stopped. Everyone had to leave. Then it was closed for several hours. Not sure when it reopened (was on Election Day last week).

Also affected The REP next door.
 
No wonder the Manchester is getting all the investment. The treasury is wary of BCC wasting even more money on projects like this - the biggest cock-up since Passchendaele.
 
Well, does anybody know on the Forum as to why it is soooooo difficult, nay impossible to get through to this "White Elephant" called The Library of Birmingham by phone ?.
Today i tried to get through to the Wolfson Centre, i called for 1 and a half hours, each time an automated message was played saying " you are through to the library of Birmingham, all lines are busy, please try again later" and then disconnected !, i couldn't even wait, just disconnected, disgraceful. I last tried calling at 4.58 and was greeted by an automated message ( this time a mans voice ) saying the library was now closed and the phone lines were off. OMG.
And people travel to see this wonderful building!!!! that is not fit for purpose, its a visitor attraction and NOT a library, hang your heads in shame the councillors that built, and are now destroying this eyesore.
 
They have to use machines to answer the phone because they cannot afford to pay staff - simples!
 
Send them a Tweet on Twitter to @LibraryofBham (or send them a Direct Message). Or send them an email?

[h=1]Contact and Enquiries[/h] Please e-mail enquiries@libraryofbirmingham.com or post a comment in the box below if available.

The postal address of the library is:

Library of Birmingham
Centenary Square
Broad Street
Birmingham
B1 2ND
United Kingdom

Tel: 0121 242 4242 (Monday to Friday, 11am-5pm)

Email: enquiries@libraryofbirmingham.com

Opening Hours

Mondays & Tuesdays: 11am - 7pm
Wednesdays to Saturdays: 11am - 5pm
Sundays: CLOSED

The Wolfson Centre for Archival Research is open Tuesday to Saturday 11am - 4pm
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Hi oisin
Manchester as it stitch up brum No And the treasury knows the wheels and the coggs within the circles of brum,
And we do not know of it and only thous with the knowledge. I,m Afraid
Astonian,,,,
 
ellbrown said:
Send them a Tweet on Twitter to @LibraryofBham (or send them a Direct Message). Or send them an email?
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all good ideas ell but we must remember that not everyone in world has the internet and some prefer to actually speak to a real person about their enquiries...an option that is slowly fading away...
 
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Can't you go up in person at the library and book an appointment?

If you don't want to wait over an hour on the phone?

Just that Internet communication is faster.

Might end up with a call centre in Scotland or India!


You only have Monday to Friday - 11am to 5pm to get them by phone. Good luck.
 
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