ROY HATTERSLEY: Why の近くにing 地元の libraries is a 悲劇 for us all

By ROY HATTERSLEY

Last updated at 20:10 07 January 2008


To my 広大な／多数の／重要な 救済, it was still open.

Forty public libraries の近くにd last year - the 犠牲者s of 地元の 政府 cutbacks.

But last Saturday afternoon in Hillsborough Park, in the north of Sheffield, 調書をとる／予約するs were 存在 孤立した with the same enthusiasm that borrowers felt 60 years ago.

I know what that library meant to people who - in that いっそう少なく self-確信して age - longed to read but would did not dare to go into a bookshop.

From the age of five until I was 裁判官d old enough to make the 巡礼の旅 on my own, I was taken there every Thursday evening by my mother and father.

Much has altered.

But the importance of public libraries - even in this new sophisticated age - has not changed.

They still 供給する 必須の （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）, informal education and, most important of all, hours of pure 楽しみ.

The are two libraries in Hillsborough Park. One is in what once was Hillsborough Hall - a late 18th century mansion which was the home of Joseph Rodgers, a Sheffield cutler whose factory 布告するd, through a message 選ぶd out in its roof tiles, King of Knifemakers and Knifemakers to Kings.

The other - housed in an 明白に interwar 拡張 - 供給するd my first experience of 調書をとる／予約する borrowing.

Over the door the notice reads "Junior Library".

In the age of Biggles 調書をとる／予約するs and Just William stories, we called its patrons "children".

Much to my delight, the staff did the same last week.

But, in almost every other way, the 態度 に向かって the young readers is different.

In my day, there were 調書をとる／予約するs on the 棚上げにするs and not much else, except the feeling that we could take them or leave them. Now, the library reaches out.

Children born in many a reas such as Sheffield receive - or the new mother receives on his or her に代わって - a pack of 調書をとる／予約するs suitable for parents to read to their 幼児.

Eighteen months later, a second gift arrives - more 調書をとる／予約するs in a satchel of the sort that two- and three-year-olds might take to nursery school.

And parents can take home (in the way they might "身を引く" a 調書をとる／予約する) what is called an "age 捕らえる、獲得する".

Age 捕らえる、獲得するs are filled with all sorts of teaching 援助（する）s and reading incentives, designed to 逮捕（する） the 利益／興味 of one-, two- or three-year-olds.

But, in the end, it is the 影響（力） of home that really makes the difference. Mathew Lockley, 老年の four, starts school tomorrow.

He was in the Junior (or Children's) Library with his father last Saturday afternoon.

Their normal habit, John Lockley said, was for one parent to look for 調書をとる／予約するs for the adults in the family while the other helped Mathew to make his choice.

It was the same with us 50 years ago. The trick is to make reading a habit.

Rory Thompson, a 有望な-注目する，もくろむd eight-year-old, was in the main library with his mother.

He had selected, from a shelf of paperback 風刺漫画 調書をとる／予約するs, a わずかな／ほっそりした 容積／容量 with the 肩書を与える 令状 Your Own Myth.

Mystified by his choice, Mrs Thompson 示唆するd that he change it for an account of the 黒人／ボイコット Death.

She thought that a horror story would attract him.

But he said that he also "手配中の，お尋ね者 something about Shakespeare" and he reluctantly 受託するd his mother's explanation that there was a 限界 on the number of 調書をとる／予約するs they could take out at any one time.

It is one of the few 制限s that remain.

Most of the old 禁止s - no babies, no talking and only two out of the three borrowed 調書をとる／予約するs 許すd to be fiction - have gone.

Just after the war the 地方自治体の library was a forbidding place.

Lik e the workhouse up the hill, it was supposed to make people better, not happy.

Now - at least at Hillsborough - the staff go out of their way to 会合，会う the borrowers' needs and wishes.

十代の少年少女s - who 明らかに like to be called "young people" - can borrow CDs, like 調書をとる／予約するs, after trying them out on a player in what used to be the 言及／関連 room.

There is often a 列 at the 解放する／自由な internet 審査するs.

And the real 調書をとる／予約するs are 分類するd under 平易な-to-recognise headings.

So Brenda Callaghan - a 刑事 Francis and Maeve Binchy 熱中している人 - and Linda Maughan, who visits the library about every three weeks and takes out three 調書をとる／予約するs, know 正確に／まさに where to look.

So did Joshua Philpott, who read the morning papers before moving on to the "travel" and "地元の" sections.

I followed Philpott's lead and 設立する that one irritating feature of Hillsborough library 固執するs.

Casual readers still return 調書をとる／予約するs to the wrong 棚上げにするs. At least I hope they do.

For in the "地元の" section I 設立する Legends Of 血.

Many other things have altered. In the foyer, a couple were locked in a 熱烈な embrace.

That would not have been 許すd - or, indeed, 試みる／企てるd - in my time.

The mulberry tree, which bore fruit for years, has gone from the grass in 前線 of the main door.

But one fact about 地元の libraries is the same. They bring immeasurable 楽しみ to people of every type, class and age.

Yet 40 の近くにd last year. What happens in Hillsborough shows what a 悲劇 that is.

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