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Oli Scarff / Getty Images, file
A woman looks through donated books which are available for free loan outside Kensal Rise library in London, England.
LONDON -- A British library opened more than a century ago by one of America’s greatest writers is being closed because of austerity budget cuts.
Kensal Rise public library, in north-west London, was unveiled in 1900 by Mark Twain while he was living in the city.
He donated five of his own works to its initial collection, which had been established in celebration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.
But 112 years later -- and days away from the Diamond Jubilee of Victoria's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II -- the library is facing its end as part of spending cuts by the local council.
Oli Scarff / Getty Images, file
Protest posters on Kensal Rise library in London, England.
It has been locked up and unused for more than a year. Workers for Brent Council attempted to clear out the remaining books on Wednesday but were met with resistance from local campaigners.
Since the closure was announced, a group of activists has called for it to be saved, enlisting modern British literary figures such as Alan Bennett to their cause.
For the activists, the library is a piece of history worth holding on to but the council says the number of users is too low to justify keeping it open.
It is one of six libraries closed in the area, representing a 50 percent cut in services. The council says it has used some of the savings to support a remaining library within a civic center that is more popular.
The building was donated to the community by Oxford University’s All Souls College through an Act of Parliament. Under that law, the facility can only be used by the council as a free library. The library’s closure means ownership will pass automatically back to the college.
A spokesman for All Souls told msnbc.com: "This is not something we engineered, this is not something we ever contemplated happening and we regret what is happening."
Campaigner Margaret Bailey expressed anger at the closure and pledged to continue the fight, praising "the support of the local community."
The protesters have set up a small free-loan library outside to distribute books to the community.
Bailey hopes to present a proposal to the college to establish a private volunteer-run library at the site.
The council has suspended its closure plans the removal of books in order to consult further with the campaigners. But for now the books will stay in their boxes and the library will remain closed.
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Leave a Comment:
I would say Mark Twain is spinning in his grave, but it's not true. His opinion of politicians has been vindicated time and again.
Reading is so last millenium. *sarcasm*
There are no monies for libraries, unemployed, old and sickly!
But there lots of monies for blow up in wars!
Social Security and Medicare have over $30 TRILLION in unfunded liabilities and you're worried about a few trillion spent on wars?
"Still many, without real education, try to mess up with the education!" You go that right!
First off your SS info is incorrect to say the least, and secondly you aren't very educated if you spell "got" with just a "go"... pot calling the kettle black eh?
A society that values war more than learning is doomed.
We aren't doomed............... we're already dead.
Hey did anyone see what happened with the Kardashians?
Um... you all realize this is happening in the United Kingdom, right? Because I think we need to go after the right people.
The austerity programs put in place by the bankers of the world, intent on keeping their wealth, should pay attention to one of their own:
To gain all the wealth in the world, yet to deny to anyone the ability to have a good library, is to gain nothing. A sign of a great community is to find if it has a great library, easily accessible by the public, located where it will be used.
When I go on vacation, I often stay at older hotels or inns and one of the great features many of them have is a library. Unlike many of the ultra-modern, super corporate resorts, many of the smaller establishments run by families feature a few book shelves of books. People borrow and add to the collection, knowing that a good read and a warm chair by the fireplace is all that is needed to make a great evening.
I guess I'm a troglodyte but I prefer a real book to an e-book. Schools and libraries are targets because that's where everyone regardless of social position or income has the opportunity to better themselves through learning and knowlege. As the old saying goes, knowlege is power and those who have knowlege are empowered. The elites who are moving the whole world towards fascism understand that to have total control of society they have to strip the rest of us of our rights and keep us in a state of uneducated ignorance so that we become and remain powerless.
Allison... you are exactly correct.
You have to wonder if governments anywhere have any grasp on preservation of history when you see something like this happen. 1 library is worth a 1000 computers. So, if funding is so tight, why not cut down on the local IT department as a first step in getting the money to save this library?
I build and maintain computers for a living and it is that job that has me convinced that the some of all knowledge should never be an internet only domain. We need to protect libraries if for no other reason but because paper books don't crash, not all of them will be destroyed in a nuclear exchange by EMP, and last but not least, it is good to have the option of heading to a library instead of sitting only in front of your computer for the Info you need.
Too right. Folio bound books are among the most successful pieces of technology in history, a technology which has endured hundreds of thousands of times longer than any electronic storage system yet devised. I did my post-graduate work in Great Britain in the 1960s, in an old academic library, reading mostly quarto-sized books from the 17th century. They were dirty, and many had worm tracks, but they were as legible and usable then as they were in the century when they were printed. (My dissertation itself, now bound, is shelved in three different libraries. It may not last three centuries, but it should be around for a while.)
Fewer and fewer people read books and use libraries for that purpose. Go to any library in US and see that most people go there to use computers. It is probably like that in England as well.
I wish the government never put public computers in the library. I can't even take the children there unless I want to wade through scary, smelly people who wouldn't read a book, but want their hour of browsing. It's a nightmare.
Max^108 ..you are so correct. I was in the local library about 5 days ago and as I was walking to the section I needed to get my book from, I had the experience of walking past the computer area and I was appalled by what I saw .. probably 5 out of the 10 computers were being used by people playing some poker game and that farm game .. amazing .. youngsters and middle aged people ..
To paraphrase Mr. Twain “Everyone talks about education, but no one does anything about it.”
Like to add-" People who don't read the news are uninformed those that read it are misinformed" I have a nook, but there is something about holding a book that is much more satisfying.
Still many, without real education, try to mess up with the education!
Very few people go to libraries anymore, except to maybe read the newest magazines, or the latest "book" additions.
Unfortunately, many books, especially reference books, are extremely outdated......
However, I personally like the solitude of a library for reading.....But since most of our "young people" can only interpret "pictures" instead of words, they will be extinct in the next decade.
Agree, I can forget the world when reading and thankfully my kids do also. My son bought the Andrew Jackson bio and read the first chapter to me aloud on the way home, best trip I had in a long time.
Jack, I agree. My boyfriend and I use the library to borrow DVDs, and it's great! I reserve or request things online, they have a massive selection, and we can request things they don't have with interlibrary loan requests or "wish lists" for purchase consideration. While books may be on the way out, the library is still relevant. And it's free!
Jack,
Agreed. And I shudder to think that my grandchildren will probably not be able to express a thought in more than 140 characters.
Love my cats: I agree with you also....Some libraries are very up to date, and some are just an appendage in the community...I have lived in states that had libraries that took your breath away with its vast selection of the latest reference materials and video selections......
I think that a great library in the community tells "volumes" about their people and their values.....The "classics" are timeless.
Unfortunately, there are many communities that look at libraries as a "money pit"....
But there is nothing like the solitude of "quiet" to get into the "zone" while reading
All of the arts are "just an easy place to cut" for the pols...........constant whining about PBS and NPR is another example. Art is gone in most schools and music and drama are on the chopping block.....what will we have when the lofty idea's of the "arts" have been defunded and destroyed........I ask.
All good things must end. It's a B!tch.
Unfortunately, I believe its just a matter of time before all libraries go this route.
Just as email has hurt Postal operations, computers will now make books held in a building obsolete.
Personally, I cannot remember the last time I used a public library for anything. Politicians are keenly aware of this and when the budget axe falls, the library's neck is on the cutting board.
Sell one of the original books and that library can stay open for a long time.
or have they been sold already??????
Who needs libraries? Hell, we don't even need a comprehensive education program. We only need a certain amount of educated people anyway. We will need lots of people to work for 50 cents an hour once the republicans successfully abolish minimum wage and bring back the manufacturing jobs.
Too bad see so much history going by the way, Too many people with their nose stuck a electronic book ,, Most people have these things just to be with the crowd... and they have to have aextra bag to carry it around... It is a shame that people do not go to a library just to relax and read.. Cut back the people who run the librarys salary.. and stop the up grades just to make the place look good, Just like stores putting junk in to get people in.. I like the old not the new BS in a Library!!!
Could you call this a nasty paper cut?
Soon the T/GOP will start closing libraries in America's cities.
They already have:
A sad, sad testament to the decline of civilization as we know it.
Austerity... fancy word for keeping the $ in the hands of the rich at the expense of the poor. Really.
Libraries used to be great places for children to learn. Take out the computers and bring back some wonderful, old-fashioned library reading programs. Everything doesn't have to be technological to be enjoyable. Just go to B & N to see people sitting and reading. These people won't go to libraries because they are full of weirdo's who want to be on the computers. They even locked the bathrooms at ours. I have a great idea. Move the computers to government offices or have computer cafe's like they have in Europe and make people PAY to use them.
Are the Brits also being extorted/ blackmailed as is the USA to provide for the Israeli Zio-fascist regime's missile defense, and thus cannot afford to keep the library open?
Libraries are for snitches...
Me thinks you mean Sneetches, particularly those who had stars on there bellies, "or not upon thars".... Thank you for the Dr. Suess reference.
I quit going to libraries years ago. The Seattle library was filled with drug addicts & the homeless looking for a place to sleep or talk there tail of woe while panhandling. The staff when asked to help you locate materials couldn't be bothered & were generally rude. I tried a suburban (Burien) libray for a while but they truly had little to offer. Then I moved to Auburn. The library there was nothing but noise, the staff refused to even attempt to control the problem & in several ways contributed to the problem. I now live in Athens, Al., a small town with a small library, a great staff & a constant rotation of books. They even have several computers. I even see children reading. Sigh,......... at last a library, with a community that knows what it's for.
What a load of BS...the budget and money were all in place but mismanagement and social misspending are what happened here!
This habit of just pas anothe rtax on the people to make up for our bad budgets and stupid spending are now biting the people in charge in there arse's!
Whats more important and whats needed.....Its a bunch of books and a building close it and shut up already,then go back to your iPad or Iphone and complain in cyber space !
Produce a budget,collect the taxes and live within your means, or fail and blame others!
Mark Twain was bad with his money also, a liberial trait if ever and a fitting end !
Hey, Joey... here it is straight out of the Houghton-Mifflin dictionary. You've heard of dictionaries right? They're usually standard fare at every library.
Conservative adj. 1. Favoring presevation of the existing order. 2.Moderate; cautious. 3.Traditional
Liberal adj. 1. Favoring individual freedom and nonrevolutionary reform. 2. Broadminded or tolerant. 3. Generous; bountiful.
It must be the "broadminded, generous" parts that get to you, eh?
times, they r a changing...rarely 'enuff' for public things..Always plenty enuff for financing destructive projects, though...nice
Do the right thing, it will gratify some and astonish the rest. Thank you Mark Twain for that comment.
To stop smoking is easy I have done it a thousand times. Mark Twain
Humor is mankinds greatest blessing. Mark Twain
"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity." Albert Einstein