Librarians Ruth Bird (@oxfordbirds) and Margaret Watson (@MargaretLawBod) have recently published blogs on issues that may be of interest to our readers.
The Malatesta Library where the reader goes to the book. The oldest European library in its original state (1447)
Ruth wrote about the value of libraries in the Canadian forum, slaw.ca, with this introduction:
“I am using the column this time to explain my anxiety that society risks losing too much as the materialism of ‘value’ replaces the experience of centuries of unquantifiable practice and purpose.
“It is my concern that too many libraries are under threat from the bean counters. Libraries have always existed as places for the ‘just in case’ event, providing the go-to location when you want sustenance of the mind in some way – knowledge, leisure, curiosity, information, entertainment.”
Margaret wrote for iall.org describing the recent adoption by the European Parliament of recommendations to the European Commission the negotiations for the TIPP , the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership making the following point:
“Anyone reading the commentary online would have been hard-pressed to discern whether this was an instance of the European Parliament boldly defending EU citizens’ rights or an example of the collapse of a democratic process under the pressure of the vested interests of big business. As legal librarians that is not our call to make, but we can provide access to the documents and explain the procedures that have brought the EU to this point.”
The links will take you to the full text, and we hope may raise a question or two in your mind of the issues faced every day by librarians as they defend the importance of free and easy access to information in whatever form it takes, both now and in the future.
