Leave the libraries alone. You don’t understand their value: A speech by Phillip Pullman
Best-selling author Philip Pullman spoke to a packed meeting on 20 January 2011, called to defend Oxfordshire libraries. He gave this inspirational speech.
You don’t need me to give you the facts. Everyone here is aware of the situation. The government, in the Dickensian person of Mr Eric Pickles, has cut the money it gives to local government, and passed on the responsibility for making the savings to local authorities. Some of them have responded enthusiastically, some less so; some have decided to protect their library service, others have hacked into theirs like the fanatical Bishop Theophilus in the year 391 laying waste to the Library of Alexandria and its hundreds of thousands of books of learning and scholarship.
Phillip Pullman gave a powerful speech against the closure of libraries facing much of the UK at the moment. It’s transcribed in full and it’s long but he’s an articulate fellow and it’s not an arduous read.
It’s not just about the value of libraries either it’s also about the culture of volunteer staffing and competitive bidding by projects for limited funding. These are all crucial issues in the new Big Society and certainly haven’t been resolved yet.
It’s not an easy issue to deal with now that we (or our representatives) have decided that propping up failed banks is more important that libraries and other community services, and deal with it we must. This is the nation we have built either actively or complicitly so we better try to understand where we stand and what we can do going forward.
