The rhetoric was clear. Books were to be a key weapon in the fight for morale. “Librarians are alive to the conditions and are adapting themselves to the exigencies of the moment,” wrote Arundell one year later when the blitz broke out. He was right. Libraries boomed and it could be argued that the democratisation of libraries took place in wartime. A Mass Observation Survey showed that a new generation of working-class readers enrolled in public libraries during the war. By 1942, Manchester Library recorded a record-breaking issue of over five mil- lion volumes, one million in Portsmouth and areas like Barnes and Swindon, which had no public library service at all prior to the war, rapidly opened one. Small libraries were formed in shelters, hospitals and prisoner of war camps. St Pancras Borough Council launched the first Travelling Library van, which promised, “A Library to your Door”. Seventy-six years from the end of World War Two, I see library workers reacting with the same resourcefulness, imagination and flexibility as their war- time predecessors.
“Libraries are about more than their buildings,” Carol Stump, President of Libraries Connected and Chief Librar- ian of Kirklees Council, acknowledged. “They are an essential part of the local economic, social and cultural recovery from Coronavirus.”
When I spoke with Donna Byrne and Michelle Russell from Havering Librar- ies last summer, they had been seconded by the council and were busy calling people on the NHS Vulnerable List to check they had food, medication and more importantly, heard a friendly voice in the sea of empty lock down days. St Helier Library in Jersey had staff in home-made masks delivering hundreds of books to people who were shielding and ran a life-line enquiry service to those needing help finding food, accom- modation or finance. I suspect many of those who would have fallen between the cracks in society were scooped up by a librarian who cared. And what about the rapid shift to online events? Kingston Libraries wasted no time and streamed the country’s first ever live rhyme time.
“We wanted to stay in touch with our users, support local residents and continue to offer a diverse range of activities for everyone,” they told me. “Eight months later, we have more than 350 original videos, 100,000 views on social media, more than 100 interactive events. We had participants from the United States and Finland joining our events!”
Donna and Michelle at Havering, came up with weekly ‘chat in the hat’ sessions on Zoom, alongside Knit and Natter,
July-August 2021
Poetry and Reading Group sessions and Baby Bounce. From what I can tell, most libraries in the land successfully interacted digitally with their library members young and old. Zoom events opened a virtual door to library users and from an author’s perspective, it was great to take part in. But that can never be used an excuse to shift libraries totally online. What about the many people who don’t have access to technology? These are precarious times for libraries and those wielding the axe often look unimaginatively to the library first when deciding where to make their cuts. “Libraries are low hanging fruits,” says Chief Librarian John Pateman, who today runs libraries in Thunder Bay, Canada, but in the UK ran two award-winning library services in Lincolnshire and Merton. “There is hardly any money saved by closing libraries, but when you close a library bad things start to happen in the neighbourhood where the library used to be. The health and education indexes get worse, crime, teenage pregnancy and addiction goes up. It is difficult to prove the positive value of a library, but it is easy to prove once it has been taken away. The library is the glue that holds a com- munity together and you only miss it after it has gone unfortunately.”
So what of the future of libraries? Bethnal Green Library narrowly avoided cuts and closure after a successful campaign to save it earlier this year, but it’s not out the woods yet. I am involved in the planning of the Bethnal Green People’s Festival to celebrate the library’s centenary and prove to the powers that be that we love that library too much to see it reduced to a shadow of its former self. John Pateman says community engage- ment is the way forward. “A public library is an engine for social change. When I was in Hackney for example, I set up a lot of collections there that were focused on the black community which didn’t exist before. When I went to Lincolnshire there was a huge army of migrant workers coming in from Poland and I developed a whole library service just for the migrant worker community. Here now [Canada] I focus my work on the indigenous commu- nity. If the library service is going to meet people’s needs then we need to understand what their needs are. It’s no-good preach- ing to the converted. Librarians must talk to the people in their community who don’t visit a library to understand why.” John is understandably proud of his library services and cites US and Canada’s architecture as another way to encour- age people in, saying: “They hire the best architects in the world to build their public libraries here. These buildings look completely stunning. The one in Halifax looks like a book from the outside. Inside there are big green screens everywhere. There is a stack of technology, there is a
roof garden, coffee bar, restaurant. Who wouldn’t want to hang out in that kind of space?”
Storyhouse in Chester has pioneered this approach. This art deco Odeon cinema has been restored and renovated into a library, theatres, a cinema, restaurant and bars. The books are creatively spread throughout all spaces and boasts the longest opening hours of any UK public library. Exeter Library has also moved in this direction.
“We are constantly looking at ways
to innovate,’ Karen Huxtable, Senior Supervisor told me. “We have hosted Drag Queen Storytime, Library Lates with live bands, music and food. We also began a hugely popular scheme where you can ‘Adopt a Book.’ Books and culture need to go hand-in-hand. We are now community cultural hubs. That’s the future for libraries.” Eighty years ago Exeter library lay in smoking ruins after being hit by a German high explosive bomb. Just one book sur- vived the inferno. Now look at the library. I wonder where it will be in another eighty years? I wonder what all our libraries will look like then?
But whether we call them community hubs or libraries, the fact remains that they are – and should remain – a safe, democratic, cradle to grave service where you don’t have to part with a penny to travel the world. Libraries are the heartbeat of our communities, offering precious resources to people in need. So here’s to all library workers. We need you.
Paul – As we come out of lockdown and into recovery, is it fanciful to imagine a future where the pivotal, neutral, trusted, safe and flexible spaces that Kate describes are recognised for what they are? People’s working habits are changing, there is a grow- ing realisation that city centres need to pro- vide more flexible spaces to accommodate these shifts. Libraries have a pivotal role to play if only urban planners and civic authorities can grasp the nettle.
About the author
Kate is an award-winning journalist, ghostwriter and novelist who has spent the past two decades in the UK mass market and book publishing industry. She also has over two decades of experience working on national newspapers and consumer magazines, including helping to launch IPC’s weekly Pick Me Up! magazine. The Little Wartime Library is due out in library hardback in the spring of 2022, published by Hodder & Stoughton. If you’d like to share your library story, please get in touch. IP
l
katharinethompson82@gmail.com l
www.katethompsonmedia.co.uk l
www.facebook.com/KateThompsonAuthor/ l Instagram –
kate.thompson1974 l Twitter – @katethompson380
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