Sunday, December 30, 2007
Some movement forward?
I went to the Library yesterday and felt the impending sense of an institution about to disappear (just like an earlier post by another reader). I am a postdoctoral student at Sree Chitra Tirunal Instt for Medical Sciences and Technology and have keenly felt the British Library network support my life in many ways- in lending books, in biding time, in being a place one could look forward to going to on a Saturday evening... I On an individual level, I could perhaps go to Modern Book Centre and buy a monthly quota of reading but.. of course, the flavour of it all will be different! Arguably there are younger people who still go to a library- not only to the newest shopping mall...and it is their posts that are the most moving. I think we should do more within India- write to the Ministries for HRD and Culture, possibly the Chairperson of the ICCR as well-perhaps, 'The Hindu 'Open Page more generally on the demise of a culture of reading (and how it is contributed to by a charity registered in the United Kingdom which now wants only to administer English tests to the children of its erstwhile colonies at costs that certainly don't merit its 'charity' tag! )Phew! Also, is it possible that we find out how much it costs to run the library. We could then find ways to meet this cost partly AND importantly speak to the British Council in economic terms- they get a place to administer IELTS, perhaps foster trade... for some money that goes into the running of the library? As a relative youngster, however, I am deeply saddened at how easy it is for adults to get divisive. I think, the cause, of preserving a place of learning, of reading, of engendering a culture that goes beyond the blare of discounts on the newest shoes at Big Bazaar, a few blocks away...that cause has no gender...We owe it to the girl who uses the library to do her projects to do more. And should we, of course, still squabble I can only envision Modern Book Centre getting richer!
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21 comments:
Fully sympathize with you.
Although I belong to the "older" generation I share your view about how some of us seniors have been behaving.
One thing that really saddens me about some of the seniors is the "It is time we kicked out the Brits" attitude that they sport.
All through their lives they used the British Library. Indeed took it for granted. Now that they are retired (not all of them, I must hasten to add, but some post-colonial types)and do not need the library like they used to, they have acquired airs of disdain that are politically correct but intellectually suicidal.
What angers me is the selfishness of their attitudes.
Let's fight for the library. For our kids. (Anyone under 30 is for me a kid.)
I too had written in the other day of feeling this same sense of doom prevailing in the ambience of the library now.
I have never seen the library in such a sloppy shape...in such a state of hopelessness...
Its worth remembering here that organisations disappear, and take other drastic decisions for various reasons within or beyond their control...but our need here is to have a library of good standing, whoever runs it; the University and Public Libraries have a percentage of good books but the system is so ancient that we cannot depend on the libraries in time of need...have you ever seen a library take a break during the peak hours of a day? in PL, you cant go in at all from 11.30 to 4, to borrow books...the result is that members like female students from suburbs have to wait till the weekends to borrow books...Uty Lib restricts memberships and no of books, so the general public cannot use it as much...the BL was a haven considering all this; I am in the habit of visiting the library at least 5 times a week, due to this...one could drop in on the way to anywhere, now all that will have to be rescheduled...
I hope we can retain the library for us as well as the future generation
Hey, I heard a rumour that some young men are going round posing as representatives of the BL and offering books on sale!
If someone happens to meet any of these guys, get full details and phone numbers, so that we can trace who is trying to fish in troubled waters!
This is a stop press item, folks..
This is high time to think about an alternate measure to have a good library in our city. If the council wants to shut down their library here, let them do that. The books and other facilities in British Library is not their asset. The BL may be run by the ICCR or the British Council but it’s own by the members who pay the subscription regularly. Let the present management to close down their business here and transfer the assets and facilities to Government or any other autonomous body permitted by the Govt. and members, who could run the show even in a better manner. Why should we underestimate our own system and policy? As long as there are good governing body and well trained, competent and sincere staff any institution can be a success. Let us be optimistic. Let the Government to evolve a solution and let them to run the library for a given period of time. Shouldn’t we need our own world class institutions in Kerala? Let’s try for that.
A young man came to our doorstep today - was trying to sell some books using British Council. He said that he is a MBA student in Trikakara. It sounded as if he is using the British Council and pretending that he is selling books from there.
My mom was not aware of this racket so did not probe him further for his mobile or phone
number. Is there a phone number to call if someone like this arrives again?
just a thought...
i have ceased to be a member of the BL from the time i left tvm. but i still have the fondest of memories about that place.
But i fail to understand the importance given to retaining the BL in its present form. even the GOvt is willing to support it. well if ur willing to support then u might as well work for a better public library..isnt there any way we can transfer these books to the public lib and also use resources to spruce up that place. y the fixation with BL. if its for the info on admissions in colleges abroad u have the internet for it and the BL website.
But sprucing up our existing public lib will do a lot more good.
hey this is after all the season of empire striking back..with our very own TATAs taking over global auto majors. y not take over the BL???
I think a large number of people want a new library. But the question is how - and the most urgent thing is to keep the current assets of the BC and work up from there. I think the problem with the Public Library system is its style of functioning. But there needs to be more thought put into why that is the case.
People also have to come up with some solution soon to run the BL otherwise membership will dwindle.
If you have ideas of how to keep it going for about 6 months till we come up with a long term solution, do write in.
Who are you talking to anon?
I think if the gp needs to focus the moderator needs to put up the various viewpoints so that people are clear about what is happening. And also that many people are working to the extent they can including "hot tempered ladies".
1) letters to various BCLs have been written.
2) responses have been received.
3) they are sorry that they have had to take this decision but for a variety of reasons they have had to.
4) they have made no attempt to meet the members and talk to us as requested in all letters
5) now some members want to sue BCL
6) some want to engage in boycotts
7) some want to not engage with BC and expect them to run this library any more but find an interim management for abt six months and then work out a long term solution
8) the "hot tempered" lady contacted the Secretary of the Library Campaign in the U.K which supports campaigns like this in the U.K
9) Response of the Secretary is that it is best to use persuasion with arguments as to how the library is so important rather than go with lawsuits or boycotts.
10) "hot tempered' lady has also contacted the CEOs of Technopark who are presenting a petition to the British Council requesting them to stay.
11) some people are working on people who know Gordon Brown to put pressure on the Council.
12) the other option of taking over the library by another management is also being explored.
The moderator should have provided this summary instead of me and also put up relevant letters, paper clippings so that people can make informed decisions and jump to conclusions about "silly hooters who cry themselves about leadership issues when serious issues are burning."
QED
The naivety of few of the posters who assume that they could obtain the kind of funding required to start and run a new library the likes of the British Council amazes me. I would advise these people to first get an idea about the annual budget for running the TVM BC library before making these claims. Sad thing is that if they are not sure about securing the funding, this whole campaign initiated to prevent the closure would have got sidetracked and killed off by this red herring of chasing funding for a "new" library.
The "leaders" of the Saveourlibrary group need to make public as to who authorized them to change the campaign from "Stop Closure of British Library" to "Start New Library in TVM".
The thousands of signatures that were obtained in support of the "Stop Closure/Save British Council Library" petition was purely in support of saving the "British Council Library" and NOT in support of starting a new library run by us in its place.
Hi,
Abt the change in objectives of the campaign - I feel this is a misunderstanding .
The primary aim has always been to retain the library in its present form. But we have discussed a plan B, thts all..
and,
There are no "leaders" ;)
There is indeed a smaller group, but it is not an exclusive grp. In fact thts the reason there's no 'committee'
If you can spend some time for the campaign everyday, or would like to be more involved, just send a mail to saveourlibrary@gmail.com
The lack of imagination and vision of some of the commentators who seem to think a library of the quality of British Council cannot be created amazes me.
As someone who has pushed for plan B, I believe that once it comes through ( and that could take some time) it will be BETTER than the British Library.
I believe it takes upto a crore to run the British Library per year. I am not sure whether this includes new books etc. That is not such a huge amount. It can be underwritten by corporate donors, govt and the Commonwealth Library Board, The National Board of Library, Singapore. These have to be approached of course.
The advantage of having four equal partners in running the library will be that if one pulls out - the whole edifice will not topple over.
We could also get better books and journals than what the British Council has been providing us and we have been silently ingesting. I am stuffed with images of Christmas pudding, filo wrapped prawns and English gardens. I want my children to be able to read books published by CBT, NBT and Tulika as I was when I was a kid.
No one has said that it is impossible to create and run a library better than the British library. Neither can we say that we cannot create a more stunning monument than the Taj Mahal either. It just requires money and expertise.
It is sad that the so-called Plan-B advocates did not have the foresight to understand the enormous damage and delays they would be causing to the time-critical "Save British Library/Stop Closure" campaign by diverting attention to starting a brand new library instead of standing behind the main cause. We could all have pulled together for a brand new library once we were sure that we will not be able to avert closure of the exisiting library. Instead I fear that the Plan-B advocates, or atleast some of them, have split the campaign up, inadvertently perhaps, and made it lose any little steam it had in getting the closure averted. Once again we Indians have demonstrated that we are prime stock to be divided and ruled easily.
I think we need volunteers to
* go to schools and request entire schools to join this campaign. Includes signing the petition. Right now the Council is pretending that they are going to push money into schools via education projects. IT is important for them to hear from schools that they want not just one good library but several. ( And frankly if you ask me in Plan B model)
* organise demos outside BCL-with the media ( national and international)
* contact all local colleges and colleges within the state. Same message as to schools.
It would be nice if the moderator was not in the habit of deleting portions of comments and leaving bits that suits his agenda.
Hi,
Moderation is kept to a minimum.
Dissenting opinions on anything related to the campaign or saving the library is welcome . That is how interesting and constructive discussions happen.
But comments,posts that are offensive,disruptive, or entirely unrelated to the topic, will have to go.
The reason being - We're running out of time..Membership refunds have already begun. Now is the time, as Aveek points out , to come together .
The comment in question made -some- points related to the library, which is why the comment was not deleted completely.
The rest of the comment was offensive and might have led to pointless arguments over it. Hence it was deleted.
Kudos to the moderator. It is essential that we keep the discussion as well as the campaign focused.
The attempt to "come together " has been going on for about three weeks.
Where is the concrete proposal to keep the library running and convince the members NOT to get their refunds ?
As pointed out in the comment that was deleted - out of 6000 odd members only a handful are active and actively resisting any move to close down the library. It is member apathy that will lead to the closure of the library - not the selective comments that the moderator chooses to censure.
Some remarks overheard from senior members of a hospital in town - it is the response of the members to the library ( feedback that was requested time and again by BCL) that has prompted the Council to take this decision. These individuals seem to have ties with the Council in Chennai. If member apathy is so rampant during this campaign - then surely it was rampant when BCL requested feedback - I myself have filled in forms on two occasions.
Also, as moderator your role is to present all sides of the debate. Why have the letters from the Council not been posted ? Why have clippings from newspapers showing that there is a trend in the U.K to cut down on libraries not been posted ?
Let people make wise decisions for themselves after you make all sides of the case clear to them. Otherwise it appears you are invested in dragging this matter unnecessarily.
I hope all the pleas and petitions will lead to a solution SOON. If not, membership refunds are inevitable.
All this is to say that unnecessary censorship ( of material that does not lead to attacks on individuals) is dangerous and scary. Almost like dictatorship.
Hi,
The letter from the BC, and the article about library cuts in the UK have now been posted
And where is it posted ?
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