Volunteers standing down and a Literary Map of Dundee.

Yesterday a story appeared in the 'Lincolnshire Echo' about volunteers at Alford Library having enough of struggling to run a library, for just over a year, standing down, a worrying blow to Lincolnshires' plans. Apparently they've been cast adrift by the council;

"The volunteers set-up to support the community by giving them another day of opening alongside the other days that the library opened under professional staff."
"Since the decision to completely change the way Lincolnshire libraries are to be run, by threatening closure, if volunteers did not take over the day to day running and funding, the group have noticed the support they used to get has effectively gone."

And as the Councillor quoted in the article puts it;

"It highlights to me the sustainability issue of volunteers and also how much you can push them before they say enough is enough"

Campaigners, users, staff and unions have been stressing the point of sustainability from the offset, it's not just about keeping the building occupied and opening the doors it's far far more than than that; there's the small matter of providing a 'comprehensive and efficient' service even though the majority of volunteer libraries are now outside of the statutory remit.
Campaigners don't vilify people for trying to keep their local libraries open, however misguided and naive it might seem at times, they vilify the government's agenda to shrink the state through the implementation of its 'Localism' agenda. It's all very sad and ultimately destructive.

And now for some good news!

Those clever people at Dundee Central Library have created a literary map of the city.

"The 15-mile, 48-stop route takes in Broughty Ferry as well as the city centre and the west and east ends and will chronicle Dundee’s literary past and present.
Stops on the trail will have walkers thinking about Frankenstein author Mary Shelly, crime writer Agatha Christie and children’s favourite Jacqueline Wilson.
There’s even a stop dedicated to notoriously bad poet William McGonagall."

This excellent idea reminded me off something a friend of mine developed a while back in Edinburgh;
http://dontprivatiselibraries.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/walking-media-libraries-in-wester-hailes.html
 





 

Walking, Media & Libraries in Wester Hailes

An old friend of mine, Eoghan Howard, from my Clays Lane Housing Co-op days recently got in touch with me to tell me about the great and innovative work he is doing with communities and libraries in the Wester Hailes district of Edinburgh.

This is what he sent me;

"you might be interested in some of the things that we've been getting up to with the brilliant folk in our local library here in sunny Wester Hailes (including them setting up a "Wester Hailes Room" for us that will be used for social history & community news sharing purposes). Please find attached for your information therefore some (partly resent) items relevant to this from our various & wider Health + Heritage + Creativity + Technology activities here in sunny Wester Hailes (& please feel free to publicise as thought appropriate). These are:

1. interActive Edinburgh: encouraging closer links between Edinburgh's communities through walking groups, local history groups, community newspapers & blogs, local libraries, other relevant institutions, & waterside walking corridors (union canal, Water of Leith, & Seafront).

2. Outward Bound: ditto through promoting walks between all Edinburgh's local libraries (& other relevant institutions). This the WH example but am doing similar for all the other libraries as well.
https://dub119.mail.live.com/default.aspx?id=64855#!/mail/ViewOfficePreview.aspx?messageid=8ad1142a-7d22-11e2-9eb5-001e0bccddde&folderid=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&attindex=1&cp=-1&attdepth=1&n=210907799

3. Community Media options: combining existing communications & social media activities with the new "digital sentinel" (resurrecting the previous closed WH community newspaper in a digital format with hard copy options that will be available at the library which will also be a central meeting point).
https://dub119.mail.live.com/default.aspx?id=64855#!/mail/ViewOfficePreview.aspx?messageid=8ad1142a-7d22-11e2-9eb5-001e0bccddde&folderid=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&attindex=2&cp=-1&attdepth=2&n=1405146579

Plus a couple of weblinks....

4. Wester Hailes social history walks QR "code book": (some of these start & finish at our local library)

5. Wester Hailes digital totem pole: (please check out the launch video in particular)http://www.theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2012/12/wester-hailes-now-has-a-digital-totem-pole/"