Past 200!

This is my 201st blog.

I am quite pleased with that and feel a real sense of achievement.

One one of the lists I subscribe to for work I discovered that some Local Authority has decided to ban products from Israel. Although Israels holier than thou attitude is galling, neither party in that dispute is all in the right or all in the wrong so I do think what they are doing is just wrong.

There is lots and lots of discussion about the future (or not) of free public libraries in the UK. As I work in public libraries I clearly have a vested interest (I want to keep my job so I can keep eating) but some of the things people say about having collections of books in supermarkets or pubs run by volunteers as being a viable alternative makes me want to scream. There is lots of support. There are sensible suggestions about how to save money as well as the stupid ones.

I presume the same conversations are happening in all sectors of public service, and health workers, social workers, highways engineers, etc etc etc are all looking at what might come and are hoping that sense will prevail over stupidity, but I don't think any of us are holding our breath.

The real impact of the recession hasn't hit most people in the UK yet, and it won't until the public sector cuts kick in. Then the roads don't get mended, the bins don't get emptied as often, the libraries close, the small schools close, etc etc.

A small instance came up at work this week. Small local papers have, for years now, been put onto microfilm to preserve them by the British Library and the National libraries. That is being cut. So in future we will have to go back to binding them (if we can afford to) with all the problems of missing issues, people cutting bits out, people stealing whole volumes and all this with the knowledge that each volume is unique. A good system used by masses of people is just being scrapped. I don't think it is progress.