Yes, there's been a bit of planning and discussion on this one, but Mike from the LIANZA office, Helen from APLM (Association of Public Library Managers) and Myself have managed to pull it together and finally, properly advertise this event!!
Who: Bob McKee the Chief Executive of CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) of the UK. Pretty noteworthy person I'd say! Here's a link to some info about him.
When: Tues 25th May 2010 5:30pm for a 6pm start with a 7pm finish
Where: Lecture Theatre 1, Old Government Buildings, Victoria University Law School, Entrance off Stout Street
Why? We felt that the Wellington Public needed to be informed of WHY PUBLIC LIBRARIES MUST BE FREE!
Be there, or be square. Man.
Oh, and here's a reference list in case you wanted some pre-requisite reading on the subject (this list may be added to closer to the event):
- Closing the books on Libraries : Werewolf (division of Scoop?), written by Gordon Campbell
- Diligent Room post : Blissfully Ignorant : Library Charges, by Michael Parry @dannevirklib
UPDATE
The audio-visual of Bob's talk (starting with Laurinda's introduction!) is available here: http://bit.ly/aWkHRu
(cheers Mike - @lianzaoffice)
4 comments:
I'm a little confused - has there been a concerted effort to introduce user pays into libraries?
I get it with new released books and CDs & DVDs: these are so popular, and relatively expensive for the library to furnish itself with and so popular that charging is a good way to manage demand.
A more important question may be: Are libraries going to be so important going forward as the age of the digital book comes into its own?
short answer, yes. Librarian's, or information professionals are going to be more important than the building itself. There is always going to be a need out there to have the tangible printed book.
There has been a handful of instances in NZ of introducing charges for adult non-fiction, and a whole raft of libraries closing in the states.
ebooks mmm, the jury is out on that. it's up to personal preference, and as long as someone prefers to read print over e-ink, then there'll still be public libraries with a few shelves. And then there's pop up picture books as well! Don't know how you can replicate them or touchy feely children's books :)
Can you imagine a touchy feely children's book on an e-reader... if you could animate the pictures or let them interact with them?
If only e-book readers could smell like a new book did though!
Don't know why recent books or DVDs should be charged for to be honest. Why should older print fiction be free over a DVD? I wonder if a book is seen as more educational, harder work then passively sitting in front of a DVD. If it is the cost, that's not a reason to charge, libraries shouldn't be buying collections to make money.
Looks like picture books have already evolved into interactive books http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-31747_7-20002462-243.html
Looks pretty exciting. I wonder what story time would be like with those? They always wanted to demanded a slideshow or video when I did it.
Post a Comment