The Library Book - Various

[MisterBus]

The Library Book - Various.

Profile Books 2012. Published in support of The Reading Agency.

 

What's the point of libraries? When we hear of libraries closing there's an instinctive urge to protest but, honestly, should we be bothered? I've not visited a library for two years and a straw poll among my friends reveals none have visited one in living memory. When did you last visit a library?.

 

But deep down I feel libraries should be part of our society so I was hoping The Library Book would help me understand why.

 

The Library Book includes contributions from Julian Barnes, Hardeep Singh Kohli, Lucy Mangan, Alan Bennett, Stephen Fry, Susan Hill and a host of other worthies who one would hope could help in this debate. Unfortunately, most of them have tackled the subject of libraries in the same way: a wander down Nostalgia Avenue wearing rose-tinted glasses and reminiscing about visits to a library when they were a child (None of them are brave enough to admit that they haven't visited a library in months or years). It makes for a nice read but it's not very helpful.

 

There are some notable exceptions. Seth Godin, Karin Slaughter and Bella Bathurst start to ask pertinent questions about library usage and their value in the future. Seth Godin interestingly suggests that we may need librarians in the future but we may not need libraries. Tom Holland is the one essay I found particularly insightful. His discussion on the history of libraries and their role in society puts the current debate about them into perspective and starts to help you understand better whether libraries should be storing books, ebooks, DVDs or computer games (and which ones). And his tale of Seleucus, a megalomaniac general who sat for a time on the throne of Babylon, serves as warning to all: "A century or so after his death, he was remembered with mingled horror and admiration as a man who had sought 'to burn all the books in the world, because he wanted the calculation of time to begin with himself'."

 

You'll find something enjoyable to read in The Library Book (and its profits go The Reading Agency which encourages reading among people of all ages so that's a good enough reason on its own to buy the book). But what you won't find in the pages is a reason why we need libraries in 2012 or precisely what their purpose should be. Can someone write such a book please.

 

Alan Cleaver