Library Cuts

Leave the libraries alone. You don’t know the value of what you’re looking after. It is too precious to destroy.

So Philip Pullman ends his furious polemic against those who would dare to close public libraries. It is a great piece of writing; unfortunately it also pretty much completely wrong as far as I am concerned. In fact, I’m with Charlotte Gore on this one; our libraries are not all as great as the likes of Pullman make them out to be.

There seems to be a great tendency for people in this country to see institutions like public libraries (and other institutions like the NHS) as good things simply because the intentions behind them are good. The reality – once we remove our rose-tinted glasses and look at what libraries are actually like – is that the quality of the institutions concerned vary massively. I know there are some good libraries out there that manage to do more than simply loan the public books (which is itself an honourable thing to be doing) – they provide communication services and a real interface between the public and often very bureaucratic and monolithic local governments. Yet other libraries are decrepit old institutions – a throwback to a different age, and as a result dated in every conceivable way. And at a time of austerity – when there is no longer any slack in the system – something will have to give. So why not get rid of the poor libraries?

Except there is no need to get rid of anything; we need to more away from the belief that institutions like libraries and hospitals are only legitimate if they are funded and owned by the government. This is something that Pullman doesn’t seem to get – libraries can exist in the private sector; there is no reason why communities cannot come together to save – and dramatically improve – a library if they so wish. The state is not the sole supplier possible for the community; the community itself can provide what it feels it wants and needs.

We need to accept the reality that the government cannot afford to continue spending in the way it has been. We also need to accept that this can actually be quite a good thing, since we shouldn’t need the government to hand us everything it thinks we need on a (generally poorly maintained) plate.

Of course, the government could help achieve this by giving the people the people more flexibility – perhaps by reducing the tax burden. Indeed, this is where the Big Society fails for me (and where Pullman is partially right); it is all very well to ask communities to take more responsibility for running and funding certain services, but it is problematic when we still have to pay so much in tax. But that’s an aside; you want to save your local library from the axe, then start working with people in your community to save it. And losing yourself in the sort of romantic nostalgia like Pullman isn’t going to help you or your cause.