Book Sale in Ilford
Local news: Central Library in Ilford is holding a sale of books (adult and junior, hardbacks, paperbacks, large print, fiction and non-fiction), videos, CD's and music scores, on Saturday 14 July, from 10am to 3pm, admission free.
posted by Unknown @ 11.7.07
16 comments
16 Comments:
The Strange Rise of Semi-Literate England?
http://www.hss.ed.ac.uk/chb/matcult2005/abstracts/Session%201/F/Bob%20Duckett%20-%20three%20abstracts.pdf
(very small pdf)
Since I ditched Adobe Acrobat and installed Foxit Reader, I can now view small pdf files without wasting hours watching my PC chundering around. I'll give it a try.
The BBC published an item on this in the last couple of days, complete with examples.
I must admit I favour the US use of "z" in words where we use "s" pronounced "z". What's the point of having a "Z" if we refuse to use it when it's needed? But that's about as far as I go down the pander-to-illiterates path.
Plain language, yes; universal dyslexia, no.
Sounds like you have as much fun with your computer as I do!
Just a little comment about official cultural vandalism really. Libraries have been selling off our cultural heritage for the last 20 years. All in the name of "being up to date".
“…"If in doubt, chuck out"… about the closing of a number of British public libraries and the dispersal of their collections e.g., the huge and valuable stock of books in the Stoke Newington Church
Street Library's reference section, containing Daniel Defoe's books….”
http://lists.village.virginia.edu/lists_archive/Humanist/v10/0431.html
The sell-off has included unique and irreplaceable collections - so you never know what you might find in Ilford ?
It is perhaps only worsted by the disolution of the monasteries, where ancient books were chucked out and used as toilet paper.
Wiseacres like Dr John Dee tried to save as many as possible, but against the odds.
A bibliophile
Hi, Dorothea
You may not know this, but the recent trend to turf out library books is down to Government, which a few years ago decided to instruct all libraries to weed out books that were 10 years or more old. Government is also keen on a computer literate society, so the pressure is on to turn libraries into Internet cafes. The Reference Library in Ilford, which used to be full of books and desks on which to study, is now a vast Internet cafe.
To be be fair to Government - not that I really want to be - I have met librarians who should be museum curators. All they want to do is collect books and hang on to them, regardless of whether anyone wants to read them. As space in libraries is limited and people want new books, running a library as a museum isn't an option.
As someone who uses libraries a lot, I see a good library as a sort of conveyor belt, with old books falling off one end (not classics, of course) and new books arriving at the other end. Nothing bores me more than a library which has the same books on the shelf everytime I go in. It's like a shop without new stock, and I stop visiting that library.
In his book "The Strange Rise of Semi-Literate England" (1991, WJ West shows that the forces destroying our libraries are complex and powerful. Since then politically correct New Labour has been keen to encourage councils to keep purging history and literacy.
I see museums as incredibly important and valuable places, for lots of different reasons. If libraries had become "book museums" I'd be delighted, because, as with art, old books are often much more interesting than trashy modern stuff. I must be the opposite of you, because I'm always getting books from 1900-1960 out of their store (while they still have it).
Amongst other things, reading old books, you really start to find out how much history is distorted by modern revisionists, to suit their own agenda, whether neo-liberal, neo-con, socialist or any other.
As the intelligent public lose access to our book heritage, we will see ever more twisting of history by those who wish to keep us ignorant of the facts and shape their 1984 / Brave New World utopia.
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it".
I did write that I didn't want to see the classics turfed out. Books like Margaret Mead's "Growing Up In Somoa" and Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" are essential in any decent library, but outdated technical manuals and reference books are useless. I spotted a car manual for a Humber Hawk in Saturday's sale! I mean how many people d'you know who drive a Humber Hawk? If there is one, I'm sure the British Library holds a copy.
The worst piece of political correctness I heard of from a Labour council was a complete library ban on all books by P.G. Wodehouse, because he had nothing to say to the working man. What tosh! Working class Jeeves extricating the young upper class twit from one daft pickle after another speaks volumes to this working man.
I didn't realise councils still used phrases like "the working man" nowadays - isn't it most un-PC?
It's not so much the celebrity authors like Mead or Smith that trouble me, such books are very easy to come by (eg., "Coming of Age in Samoa" 48 on ABE books [UK] today, starting @£1.40 + p&p, gives an idea that many are available second-hand.)
The damage is with hard-to-find items, say Disraeli's political works such as "Vindication of the English Constitution". There are only 2 of these advertised on ABE [UK] the cheapest at £400 !
And then there are all the thousands of writers, many of whom have played important roles in their fields, and in our history and culture, but who have fallen into modern disregard and where some titles can be scarce or more costly, eg. GP Marsh, Jesse Collings, Philip Mairet or Sir Aurel Stein.
Hi, Dorothea
I think I'd plump for Machiavelli's The Prince or maybe Sun Tzu's The Art of War, rather than Disraeli. The Prince is 500 years old, The Art of War 2500 years old, but they're widely and cheaply available in Wordsworth Reference classics. Both have survived in print because they show great wisdom that is still applicable today. (Maybe the Pope excommunicating Machiavelli helped The Prince. Too close for comfort!)
One book whose loss I mourn is C. Whitaker-Wilson's How To Punctuate, which, despite its uninspiring title, is a joy to read. But I hold a copy (1950). It's a must for anyone writing in English, but long out of print. If you ever spot a copy, grab it.
You can order many obscure titles and scientific papers from the British Library through your local library. If an item is so rare that the Brit. Library won't let it out of sight, it may be possible to read it in situ.
When I was studying Psychology, there was one reference everyone kept quoting on Anorexia nervosa: the first English mention of the subject. I got one of my lecturer's to apply for a day pass for me and visited the old Brit. Library to read it. It was in Latin! But I did confirm its date, which a number of scientific authorities had got wrong.
It's amazing what you can pick up in library book sales dirt cheap. Last year I chanced upon an art book by Max von Boehn: Miniatures And Silhouettes (1928). 50p. I tracked it down on the Internet and it's worth about £100! But who would ever read it, apart from me? It was so old it had vanished in the library storage shelves and hadn't been put on the library database. So nobody knew the library held a copy until it was found during "weeding". The library was computerized about 20 years ago, so this book hadn't seen the light of day for at least that long.
Computerization is another library problem. If a book isn't on a library database, it is lost. Not even librarians know where to find it, let alone members of the public. So what's the point of holding it? Add it to the library database, you say. Well, first find it, then persuade a librarian to add it. "Not cost-effective" will be the answer.
Try Antiquarian Books:
http://www.ilab.org/index.php
"It's amazing what you can pick up in library book sales dirt cheap. Last year I chanced upon an art book by Max von Boehn: Miniatures And Silhouettes (1928). 50p. I tracked it down on the Internet and it's worth about £100!"
There are people who will want to pay good money for such a book. Trust me.
Another issue in all this is privatisation. Books like this were effectively held in trust for all of us, the British people. Now they have been flogged off at a loss.
That's what I'd call a rip-off.
The point isn't whether a book interests me personally. The point is that these books belonged to everyone and were freely available for each person to pursue their own particular path of interest.
Not everybody lives in London (yet!). If you live in Tintagel and are doing some research you need books in the Cornwall / Devon area. Likewise in Alnwick; Northumberland.
Not everybody can afford Inter-Library loans constantly. I can't. Also many of them only allow you a short time.
Etc etc.
They are gradually strangling our english culture and heritage, to replace it with ... well we know the answer to that. Don't we.
"Computerization is another library problem."
Totally. They are up the creek.
Wait until they bring in self-service. It's the latest trend. Then you'll have to use the computers yourself to issue and discharge your books, and you'll really have something to moan about.
LOL!
Don't worry Coxsoft, this grumpy middle-aged woman has a vast backlog of bemoanable subjects. No shortage there at least.
I do feel strongly about this though ....
Please excuse my infamous terrier tenaciousness. I'm not really a dog!
You're not the only one who feels strongly about this.
Many librarians are furious, but they're being eased out of a job. (Once a profession becomes all-graduate, the writing's on the wall, unless they have a powerful union or professional body.) Librarians being weak and too expensive to employ, library assistants are being given more and more librarians' work, but they're not being paid any extra for their new responsibilities. (Lib. assistants are the lowest paid council workers, on a par with school dinner ladies (i.e. "unskilled labour"), despite the enormous amount of skilled and educated work they need to do. (If you seek help in a library, the chances are it's a library assistant who will give it to you.
Here's another thought. In a recent study of stress in 5 occupations, librarians were found to be the most stressed! They're more stressed than police officers, firemen, train drivers and teachers! (Not what the scientists expected; they thought librarians would be their benchmark for the lowest stressed employees.)
So spare a thought for the poor workers in libraries. Give 'em a kind word. It'll make their day.
"Librarians being weak"
Hey ... you want they take up weightlifting?
"So spare a thought for the poor workers in libraries. Give 'em a kind word. It'll make their day."
Oh, I generally do.
I've worked with (up against?) "the public", so I know how stressful it can be.
That's good (being nice to the unfortunates who work in libraries).
Politically weak. Librarians are "represented" by Unison or the Transport And General Workers Union. Have you ever heard either of these unions campaigning for librarians?
As for library assistants, their pay is so low they can't even afford to join a union!
"Unions"
Huh! Don't even go there. They are as much of a sell-out as the New Labour wool.
And yes, I know from personal experience that the fat unions and their cushy bureaucrats don't give a flying fryup for;
a) part-time workers
b) women workers
c) common sense
d) justice
e) our country
and so on ...
f) smokers
g) computer users (union bosses are too thick to understand the European Display Screen Regulations, which should guarantee every employee who uses a computer a free eye test and financial help toward buying spectacles).
Dinosaurs....
And what about school children who use computers?
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