Thu, 03 Mar 2011
Libraries - a place of equality.
There is a considerable amount of talk in the media and on microblogging site Twitter regarding the closures of libraries within the UK. Many people have blogged on the subject giving the many good arguments for libraries including those of helping young children from low income families get a good start at reading.
I wanted to put forward another point that is often not considered when people thinks of their local library. Put simply, the local library is one of the few places in the modern British society where everyone is truly equal. Where there is no means testing on ability, no shunning of someone because their sort is not welcome, and with large numbers of audio books available, you don't even need to be able to read.
As a heavy user of Canterbury Library, typically visiting every couple of days, it has been refreshing to look at the other library members and see such mixing. Standing in the queue to renew my books we have everyone from a low waged single mother, the millionaire business woman, and your average middle class adult. Each one treated with total equality. I have sat at the main reading table in Canterbury Library along side a homeless man who had brought his trolley of belongings in, and was reading his way through a book. Accepted, without question. I struggle to think of any other institution or place where people are truly accepted so equally.
So refreshing, your local library.
posted at: 14:42 | path: / | permanent link to this entry | 1 comments
Posted by Library Web at Sun Mar 6 19:57:43 2011
Social mobility is a dead end
"Our society relies on working-class jobs – dangling a narrow ladder for moving up is a diversion from tackling inequality"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/01/social-mobility-dead-end?CMP=twt_gu