Things which really died a death.

[The Mad Monk]

glazbagun said:

They were slashed as part of the austerity drive by the 2010 govt, loads of librarians laid off and replaced (if you're lucky) by volunteers. Many simply closed. This is from 2016, it's not getting any better-

Not so.

Libraries are funded by local government. not national government.

Whether a library stays open or closes is decided by the county council, not the government.

[jumare]

The Mad Monk said:

glazbagun said:

They were slashed as part of the austerity drive by the 2010 govt, loads of librarians laid off and replaced (if you're lucky) by volunteers. Many simply closed. This is from 2016, it's not getting any better-

Not so.

Libraries are funded by local government. not national government.

Whether a library stays open or closes is decided by the county council, not the government.

A lot are run by Parish councils working with 'Friends' (volunteers), the Parish councils want to get revenue by trying to turn them into coffee shops and the friends are usually retired middle managers who want to carry on corporate style strategy etc.

Meanwhile the libraries as said are mainly used by children (pre-school) and the elderly.

[The Mad Monk]

jumare said:

Meanwhile the libraries as said are mainly used by children (pre-school) and the elderly.

A lot of us elderly people don't understand this internet thing.

[Roofless Toothless]

schmunk said:

h0b0 said:

Libraries.
This is for books that are generally available and not reference libraries.

My local library is well used, albeit mainly by children and the elderly.

It's books, isn't it? Nobody seems to read them any more. Look at the Books forum on here - the least visited forum in Pie And Piston.

I love books, and share my home with hundreds of them. I have about 300 books about Richard Wagner alone. A year or two back I managed to double up on one of them, a biography of Franz Liszt, so I decided to take a copy down to the library as a donation.

They declined to take it, saying that they didn't have any call for things like that. I went to the charity shop with it instead. They refused it too!

Some local libraries in this part of Essex are closing imminently. Our nearest is surviving, but seems to be the mere preserve of people using the Internet, having meetings of special interest groups, or small exhibitions. I use the local history reference library (I am old!) and we sometimes go there to read with our 6 year old granddaughter.

[Monkeylegend]

Roofless Toothless said:

It's books, isn't it? Nobody seems to read them any more. Look at the Books forum on here - the least visited forum in Pie And Piston.

UK book sales are on the increase up year on year for the last 5 years or so. Like vinyl there is a bit of a resurgence.

It's easier to buy a book off Amazon than making a trek to the library though.

[RTB]

Speaking of books, I was tidying out a "man drawer" over the weekend which was full of wires, old mobile phones, random drill bits, dead batteries etc and I happened across a Blackberry Playbook that I bought back in 2011.

I managed to get it charged (after doing the stack charging trick) and started it up. It's a shame Blackberry were so bad at selling their products, as it's still a nice piece of kit to use. Shame nothing is really supported on it any more. Back it went in the man drawer for another 5 years....

[Halmyre]

I use my library as much as possible, even though the fiction section is full of James fking Patterson and the non-fiction section seems to get smaller every year.

[Monkeylegend]

I used the library many years ago but there is something about owning your own books, seeing them stacked on the bookshelves you made yourself, hoping they won't fall down anytime soon.

[anonymous-user]

Our local library closed a few months ago. It's going to be replaced by a cafe / bar called the Old Library. It must have taken them minutes to come up with the name

[Blown2CV]

Monkeylegend said:

Roofless Toothless said:

It's books, isn't it? Nobody seems to read them any more. Look at the Books forum on here - the least visited forum in Pie And Piston.

UK book sales are on the increase up year on year for the last 5 years or so. Like vinyl there is a bit of a resurgence.

It's easier to buy a book off Amazon than making a trek to the library though.

my 2 year old daughter must have about a hundred books. She absolutely loves them, and we're not about to start convincing her that an eReader is a better idea, even if it is more efficient etc, and also paper pages get ripped etc. For one thing eReaders just don't work for young kids because of the lack of pictures. The library is an exciting trip out, she loves doing that with us or with the grandparents and the idea of lending teaches her that not everything is hers alone. Would be a shame if it closed. A lot of it is that many parents just don't read with their kids any more. Many kids are now presenting with 'Irlen Syndrome' at high school, which is essentially where they cannot focus on text, and the understood cause is because they don't have practice of reading over their life to that point.

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

Grahamdub said:

Our local library closed a few months ago. It's going to be replaced by a cafe / bar called the Old Library. It must have taken them minutes to come up with the name

My home town (Southwell, Notts) has two points of interest. It has a large Minster, quite unusual for a circa 10,000 resident town, and it's the birthplace of the Bramley Apple. Everything in the town is named either Minster this or Bramley that. When the new library opened some, 10-15 years ago, I can't remember, there was a piece in the local rag asking for name suggestions. I said 'why bother, it will be Bramley or Minster something. Sure enough, it was named 'The Bramley Centre'. Such imagination......

[silverthorn2151]

Reversing round a corner.

Everyone seems to feel entitled to do a three point turn instead on main roads as if they are somehow more important.

Boils my juices right up to 10!

[C&C]

The Mad Monk said:

glazbagun said:

They were slashed as part of the austerity drive by the 2010 govt, loads of librarians laid off and replaced (if you're lucky) by volunteers. Many simply closed. This is from 2016, it's not getting any better-

Not so.

Libraries are funded by local government. not national government.

Whether a library stays open or closes is decided by the county council, not the government.

True, but also true is that the majority of funding for local government comes from a central government grant, and as part of the austerity measures, that funding has been slashed, leaving local government to make the choice whether to cut back on (for example) social care provision, or to close libraries. Often not much of a choice is actually available to local government, due to the fact that some of the services provided are a statutory requirement.

It is interesting that many people assume that the council tax is the main source of income for local government, whereas (for example) in 2013/14, the total funding for local government was around £156 billion, of which only £23 billion was raised via council tax (see page 11 of this document).

[Mr E]

The child is probably in the library twice a month. He’ll take out 6-10 books at a time.

If you assume £6-£10 each, that’s an awful lot of money.

[SpeckledJim]

Roofless Toothless said:

schmunk said:

h0b0 said:

Libraries.
This is for books that are generally available and not reference libraries.

My local library is well used, albeit mainly by children and the elderly.

It's books, isn't it? Nobody seems to read them any more. Look at the Books forum on here - the least visited forum in Pie And Piston.

I love books, and share my home with hundreds of them. I have about 300 books about Richard Wagner alone. A year or two back I managed to double up on one of them, a biography of Franz Liszt, so I decided to take a copy down to the library as a donation.

They declined to take it, saying that they didn't have any call for things like that. I went to the charity shop with it instead. They refused it too!

Some local libraries in this part of Essex are closing imminently. Our nearest is surviving, but seems to be the mere preserve of people using the Internet, having meetings of special interest groups, or small exhibitions. I use the local history reference library (I am old!) and we sometimes go there to read with our 6 year old granddaughter.

I think 90% of the point of the library has been obviated by the modern world. There's some reason to still want/need them, but it's nowhere near the demand that it used to be.

People used to need the library for reference purposes. Ha! Imagine going to the library to find something out!

[anonymous-user]

Grahamdub said:

Our local library closed a few months ago. It's going to be replaced by a cafe / bar called the Old Library. It must have taken them minutes to come up with the name

The local library decided to remove all genres and put everything in author alphabetical order.

Not surprisingly the usage plummeted because no one could find anything.

[Europa1]

The "Farting in the Office" thread seems to have died a death. I'd love to know why.

[SpeckledJim]

keirik said:

Grahamdub said:

Our local library closed a few months ago. It's going to be replaced by a cafe / bar called the Old Library. It must have taken them minutes to come up with the name

The local library decided to remove all genres and put everything in author alphabetical order.

Not surprisingly the usage plummeted because no one could find anything.

That sounds like the kind of thing a bored, amateur, volunteer librarian would have a go at.

[Frank7]

silverthorn2151 said:

Reversing round a corner.

Everyone seems to feel entitled to do a three point turn instead on main roads as if they are somehow more important.

Boils my juices right up to 10!

In my previous job, the vehicle I drove had to have, (by law), a 25’ turning circle, I probably did about 5 three point turns in 30 years, but I can assure you that turning on a sixpence in front of drivers, seemed to pi$$ off more of them than doing three point turns did.

[br d]

What's the "Stack charging trick"?