Wednesday, January 28, 2015

When is a library not a library? When it's a hub

I remember as a child of 6 my first trip to our local library. It was the Trelai branch in Caerau, Cardiff (now sadly closed). I remember it well, I remember the first book I checked out. It was Rosemary Sutcliffe's "Troy",an big picture book, and it began my lifelong love of reading.

I remember 2 very important things about my visit, the first quite a lot of books, and the other shhh!. When I lived in the US, I was always impressed by their libraries and how well maintained they were, whether, it was Denver, Boulder, LA, or even tiny ol Dodge City, they were great even in times of recession and none were closed. Even in extremely right wing Colorado Springs they were great.

However I come home to Wales and find that my home of Ely has closed it's only library and moved its collection into a hub, where people can pay their bill, receive advice.

This is not a library! But this a what is going to happen in Cardiff our libraries are going to be sacrificed to the God of saving money!

When will the people of Cardiff stand up for their libraries? The people of Ely did not. To my shame.

A hub is not a library.

Monday, January 12, 2015

Oklahoma bombings 20 years on and Charlie

After dwelling on the tragedy that happened in France with Charlie Hebdo and the Jewish Kosher Supermarket  (and let's not forget the thousands slaughtered in Nigeria by the Boko Haram) I recall that we will be approaching the 20th anniversary of the Oklahoma city bombing (April 19th, 1995). I was living in Denver, Colorado, at that time and remember, that the hysteria that surrounded it and the belief that this was a act of middle eastern terrorism. I however it was some crazy American (who was not actually crazy) who showed very little remorse for the poor child in the fireman's arms a terrible icon that I will never forget