They ran a piece on Julia Donaldson,(The Gruffalo), the new Childrens Laureate in the UK. Julia is a huge endorser of libraries and attributes them to her fame and success. Here's a short excerpt from an interview with her in the Guardian:
In recent months she has flung herself into the campaign to save libraries, leading a protest meeting at the Scottish parliament, signing petitions, and turning up at readings in libraries in Scotland and England.
She is promising even more ardent efforts in her new role.
"I'd love to do a libraries tour from Land's End to John O'Groats," she said. "The children who would come to events in libraries would have been briefed beforehand that they would come to perform something to me, so the first 10 minutes of each session they might perform a class poem they had written or act out a favourite picture book.
"Maybe I'll be able to talk to the minister of culture and persuade the government to have some kind of overall plan because at the moment I feel all the library cuts and closures are very piecemeal, so I'll do what I can," she added.
The World and us libraries could do with a few more Julias on board.
The same show had a wonderful interview between Kirsty Wark and Philip Roth. I was astounded at how likable Roth came across, so human and open, not at all how I'd perceived him from other interviews. She interviewed him in his Conneticut home, I've trawled the internet and cannot find a link to it anywhere :(
There are so many library lovers and devotees out there - perhaps public libraries should be actively chasing them down to advocate on their behalf! Good for Julia offering her time like that - she knows libraries are an investment in the future of the communities they reside in.
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