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ITH the launch of CILIP’s Libraries Change Lives Week taking place this month, it seems
appropriate to kick off this edition of Mediawatching with news of someone whose life has been changed by libraries.
Author David Nicholls – the man responsible for the source material for Netflix’s latest bingeable RomCom, One Day – told The Independent newspaper (
https://tinyurl.com/2rkh3hsn) just how important libraries were for him. He reveals his anger at the erosion of library services, alongside the reduction in access to arts and arts-based university courses, saying: “I have personal experience of what an education can give you and I get angry when it comes under attack. It changed my life – being paid to go to university and having access to public libraries and local theatres.”
Speaking of access to culture, we have a piece from
Hyperallergic.com, which reports on a pop-up library dedicated to the launch of Taylor Swift’s latest album, The Tortured Poets Department. The pop-up library appeared to be less of “borrow books” type of library, and more of a selfie opportunity for Swifties. The report says: “The singer-songwriter collaborated with Spotify on a three-day pop-up “library installation” that went on display in the open-air shopping mall yesterday, 16 April, offering dozens of Easter eggs about the new album and other potential future projects that have yet to be officially announced. “Before dawn yesterday, over 1,200 fans of the artist lined up to sneak a peek at the installation, which is teeming with dark academia props including seemingly worn manuscripts, typewriters, fountain pens, clocks, and shelves lined with books.”
Over to Australia next and a laudable attempt to put AI to good use, with a tool designed to answer questions about life as a soldier in the First World War. Unfortunately for the State Library of Queensland, which was behind Charlie, the AI War Veteran Chatbot, there
April-May 2024
Sex and Drugs and Stacks that roll – according to Fox News.
were some folk who couldn’t resist the opportunity to cause mischief. The Guardian (
https://tinyurl.com/ h2zhw5jz) reports that “less than 24 hours after the bot was launched, internet users were already attempting to ‘jailbreak’ it.” According to Journalist Cam Wilson, who was the first to report on the attempts, people were trying to get through the bot’s “guardrails to make it say things that are not in character”. This included one user asking the bot to respond as if it were Doctor Who, which resulted in it talking about Daleks and Cybermen as well as revealing that it had “even saved the universe a time or two”. Next, children at a special needs school in Kent will soon be able to take flights of fantasy thanks to a new library created using an old plane. The cockpit and a section of the fuselage from an Airbus 319 has been delivered to Five Acre Wood School in Loose, where it will be transformed into a new library for children to enjoy.
Headteacher Tim Williams told the BBC (
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ c51wn0zv41xo): “We like to be innovative. We like to do things differently. What’s more inspiring and what creates more awe and wonder than having these different spaces? And these aren’t just amazing spaces – these are inspiring, phenomenal, pioneering spaces.” Twitter (aka X) has been all of a flutter
after a Fox News report about libraries, suggesting they had become “drug- infested sex dens”. The revelations came on The Five new show, and social media users were quick to respond. Among the respondents were access Service Librarian @ThomasACStout, who revealed “I have not been offered drugs or sex in 12 years of library work, and I demand this injustice be rectified.”
Another X user, @johndevore, joked: “It surprised me that Fox News would promote libraries, but every little bit helps.”
Finally, we delve into something a little darker and the news of a rare find in the stacks of Cleveland Public Library. A copy of the Qur’an, purchased in 1941, has long been the subject of rumours that it is bound in human skin. Now the library is attempting to find out for sure. According to
Cleveland.com (https://tinyurl. com/y4matjtt) an early catalogue description of the book makes the claim, and there have a been repeated references to it in the media ever since. However the library is not so sure, with John Skrtic, chief of special projects and collections at the library, saying: “Our book is not validated, but we’re pretty doubtful that it is. But we are going to have our book tested, just in case the question ever comes up again, so we’ll have a definite answer about whether this book really is wrapped in human skin.” IP
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