A Community Zine by people in Bradford district
Introduction Welcome to the Love Bradford Libraries e-zine This community zine was put together with contributions from people across the Bradford district in Autumn/ winter 2019 - 2020 to show our love and appreciation for our Libraries and what they mean to us. Many people contributed in lots of different ways, and our thanks to each and every person who added their voice. We hope you enjoy the zine!
Lovebradfordlibraries@gmail.com
My
library
My library was a tower block 7 floors of fact and wonder And magic called micro fiche the expectant sound of the books Rubbing across the scanner And the thud as things were sent To the mysterious stacks An entire universe. The excitement and the worry When the stamp punched in the return date That teenage me invariably ignored, oops Little me thrilled with the power And responsibility of 12, Twelve books! Every three weeks! 3 am bedtimes that Mum Pretended she didn’t know about But was secretly pleased That I was reading. And then one day I realised I could enter the adult section A rite of passage To bigger worlds that spanned centuries and imaginations Seed sown, long before game of thrones, a passion for David Eddings and epic fantasies Of possibilities and inequalities Enchanting, enduring. Libraries, nourished my mind And started my love affair with words A levels, a degree, a career with words Policy, strategy, changing lives A sideline in metaphors and images drawn With the confidence of someone who has Read all her life And seen worlds that she has not touched But knows everything is possible. Now my library is no longer a library And still when I walk into the building I see the benches, the counters and wonder how many times I climbed those steps to wonder I look into the right hand corner of the Big conference room and I see The novels full of fantasy And the thrills and spills of life The world was my oyster My transportation my books The station - my library. A
Even in the library there is a confterbul chair They have good computers and give you hot chocolate
Libraries are FREE!!
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What do you love about your library? • Everything! They are a door to a world of knowledge and power! • All the books are interesting
• The library has good football books
• The computer because you can search nice books • They help you find a book you like • In the library is very piceful
• I like the library because it has very interesting books filled with imagination • Even in the library there is a confterbul chair
• They have good computers and give you hot chocolate
• In the library they have the best book you like the librarians are very helpful • I like the car books with racing cars
• There are no distractions in the library
• My favourite book is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and also football books • Audio books
• It’s my first time in the library so far I am loving it • I like how they let you take books home
• I have a library card. I like the different books
• What I like about the library is that there are lots of different books • I love the football books
• Once I went to the library and I couldn’t find the book I was looking for - so I asked the librarian and she found it for me • I love the library because the books give you knowledge • I like library’s because they educate you
• In the library I like the computers because you can play • I go to Laisterdyke Library and I love it because it keeps me educated • What I like about my library is that it has lots of books, comics and DVDS
• They also have audiobooks! newspapers! Magazines! Computers!
• My dad used to take me to the library every Saturday when I was a little girl • It’s a home from home
• Libraries are FREE!!
• What do I owe libraries? I would never have become a writer if I hadn’t read all the 100s of stories at my local library when I was a child
• When I was a kid, I went to the library as somewhere warm to hang out and look things up in reference books (pre internet). I didnt want to go home to a difficult environment, and the staff and space and books were a sanctuary for me. 40 years on, my on child LOVES libraries - its one of his favourite places ever - and gives him access to loads of books - especially the ones he doesn’t have at home. CHILDREN NEED LIBRARIES - and adults too! • It’s close to my house I can walk there • My dad worked in the library.
• I love the atmosphere and the aroma of a library its very nostalgic • Libraries are a right not a privilege. Everyone should have the opportunity to enjoy the world that books and libraries can bring! • Libraries feed the imagination!
• It isa whole new universe in which you can enter any world you want, an escape! • It’s a home from home • It helps stress go away
• I enjoy the library because its peaceful • I love reading!
• Libraries feed the imagination!
• I would feel calm because it is always quite and my favourite books are Roald Dahl • I love the library because books give KNOWLEDGE and with knowledge gives POWER, and children and Bradford need POWER!
• Libraries are about building and enriching communities • Libraries are a sanctuary from a mad world!
• Libraries are essential for communities and children’s growth and developmen • keep them open! • • Community responses gathered from children and adults at the ‘Bradford Stories Festival event at Kala Sangam, October 2019
Keeping it Real
I
t just occurred to me that as libraries close, more and more Librarians appear on the telly. In heroic roles. As they disappear from our lives they’re recreated in fantasy. The first one springing to mind is Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Rupert has all the qualities you’d want from a grown up: he’s erudite, handsome, kind and reliable, a safe haven. A far cry from the ‘fate worse than death’ Librarian in the Christmas movie It’s a Wonderful Life. Without George in her life, Mary is a spinster locking up the library at night. On investigating this further I’ve found Librarians running amok in literature and movies, from Ghost Busters where there’s a floaty pink lady who morphs into a screaming banshee when disturbed from her reading; to the library cop in Seinfeld who barges into Jerry’s house to collect fines. Stereotypes thrive from the 1950’s onwards from shushing librarians to clever detective types, inspirational guides and superheroes like The Librarians. I did a degree in Library Studies but was too embarrassed to tell anyone so made things up like: “ Oh me, I’m studying Needlework in the Middle Ages looking at the Bayeaux Tapestry at the moment”. I was worried they would think I was boring. I was. The reason I chose it was so I could work abroad. Whilst in the sixth form, I’d read in the VSO handbook they’d take Librarians and there was no way I could train as a Civic Engineer by this point. I knew about libraries, felt comfortable in them, had even spent time behind the counter at the one in school. Actually I spent all my time in libraries, there wasn’t anywhere
else I was allowed to go on alone. On qualifying the furthest I got was Brixton Library by way of Ipswich Central. But I’d always wanted to be a writer so gave up a well-paid functioning career to write. So. Now I’ve written this. I didn’t half get some flack back then, but like I say I probably would’ve been out of a job by now anyway. Looking back on my ten years as a librarian it was brilliant, I loved helping people find something to read, loved talking about books, researching and buying them. Every time I move or find work in a new place the first thing I do is join the local Library. The comedy Parks and Recreations satirizes ‘library anxiety’, this is a real actual condition and if libraries disappear and all we’re left with are librarians in intelligent comedies or as daring superheroes we will have lost our minds: Despite it being a condition ripe for staging comedic moments, library anxiety remains a very real and debilitating state that can result in decreased academic achievement and a deficiency in information literacy, and is often characterized by negative emotions in relation to libraries including fear, confusion, disorganization, and apprehension. That’s terrible isn’t it? Imagine being afraid to go into a library because you don’t know what happens inside. In my heart I will always be a librarian… Evelyn: “Look, I... I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a treasureseeker, or a gunfighter, Mr. O’Connell, but I am proud of what I am.” Rick: “And what is that?” Evelyn: “I... am a librarian.” Shabina
Keighley Carnegie Library A sanctuary of transit, where shelves, though static, seethe with life and revolution. Unassuming volumes overflow with secrets, lovers’ trysts, contentions of philosophy, equations of calculus. Today, yesterday, and last century, those who came here felt the light of it and left changed. What if their children will not know it and a million sparks are quenched at source? William
Notes:
• Keighley Library was the first Carnegie Library in England, opened in 1904.
• Last year there were more than a million borrowings from Bradford Libraries.
How has Keighley Library helped you?
A small selection of responses taken from the Keighley Library visitors book, with thanks to Friends of Keighley Library: • A haven of culture, knowledge and adventure
• I use the computers to job search. I would be devastated if I was unable to do this • Invaluable source of information and reading material • Since childhood for learning and leisure
• Keeping my brain active with books and computers that are essential for learning • A bit of quiet
• Factual books: travel, history, geography • Arts research. The library is wonderful!
• Free books, access to computers and printing, a warm place to relax • Good Reading Groups
• Researching the social history of Northern England • Libraries are the NHS for the spirit! • I bring my children here to read
• I visit regularly and go to Story Time and Puppet Shows • It’s great for all ages - would be disastrous to close
The Friends of Keighley’s Carnegie Library friendsofkeighleylibrary@gmail.com
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Karen
In an article for The Guardian by Alison Flood on 9th December 2019, Alison wrote that: • Almost 800 libraries have closed since the Conservative-Lib Dem government implemented austerity in 2010. • 3,583 library branches still open in the UK – Since 2010, 773 have closed. • In 2009/2010 there were 24,000 salaried staff working in libraries. In 2018 there were 15,300 employees and more than 51,000 volunteers. • The number of people visiting Libraries has gone down. This is not because of poor financial management by local authorities, it isn’t all their responsibility and we don’t have to wait until the economy is doing better to save our libraries: • Local library services are not the responsibility of local councils alone: the 1964 Public Libraries Act requires central government to oversee and improve public library services – a responsibility that Conservative governments have failed to implement. • Cuts of around 30-40% handed down by previous Conservative government have caused this. We need a fair funding settlement for local governments, to reverse the emergence of library ‘haves and have-nots’ across the country,” • By investing in libraries, you create opportunities for education and skills across the country, which in turn creates the conditions for future economic growth. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/dec/06/britain-hasclosed-almost-800-libraries-since-2010-figures-show
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hen my son was young, they were part book jackets of our network, providfor overcoats ing learning opportunities, singing, her nude ambition poetry readings and visiting writings give names to th ers. One highlight being Zoolab to read to , ty with their snakes and iguanas to curtail her vani r fo al nu hold. ma a seek fe li de ma n ma Later they provided books for this research projects, for him and me, books hiring of dvds even for the latest aginations chroniclers of im films, local history information, fall between, om fr r he info on the noticeboards for local te ra sepa life r ve -o ed ic , en groups and classes which I then froz joined and enjoyed. let them I use the online library catalogue re-orientate service heavily, using it to order furnish spaces r he of s he ac and reserve books which are too re e at th costly to buy. stories how she lives in For years to me a library repreare tales sents, free, equal, safe access to edauthored by her ucation and learning for everyone whatever stage they are at in their a nn Do lives. A library can be a retreat, a safe place, an info hub, a drop in spot, a learning zone, a friendship meet up link site.
Libraries vital Alyson
are
A Library is wasted on Keighley This town is grime and multi-storey, shopping precinct, passing through. It’s ‘us and them’ and I remember when. This town is left-to-go-bad pubs, mills missing bricks, could be made into something good. This town is cut-price alcohol, a smoker’s cough, hacking up the leftovers of last night’s beer. This town is Bronte, K-Day tickets to Anywhere as long as it’s Somewhere The Fuck Out Of Here. This town is dissed on facebook pages by those who think it is its reputation, who mock the concept of a library here, because they have a strange idea about who might use a library, of what a library is for. This town is full of readers, poets who write about the town they see. It’s full of artists, scribblers, bookworm kids and wannbe novelists who meet on Saturdays. This town doesn’t waste its library.
Gill
photo from Barbara’