There is a scene in The
Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam, which has always stayed with me. One of the
characters, Qatrina, nails all her books to the ceiling in an attempt to save
them from being discovered by the Taliban, who would have inevitably burnt them had found them. Qatrina
reasons that no one would think to look up at the ceiling, and so the books
would be saved.
In Ray Bradbury's classic, Fahrenheit 451, books are outlawed, forcing a group of rebels to
memorise them and make themselves walking libraries so that the books were not
lost forever.
In the Shadow
of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, there is "The Cemetery for Forgotten Books", from
which visitors were required to leave with one book and protect it forever. For the main
character, Daniel, the Cemetery is not only a refuge from the world outside,
but also provides him with a book that will change his life.
I read another story recently, this time a true
story, of a librarian in Timbuktu - Mr. Haidara. He and his fellow librarians
and archivists worked under the cover of darkness to smuggle out thousands upon
thousands of manuscripts, ancient texts, parchments and books, all concealed inside
metal chests and oil barrels and hitched onto donkeys. It was an extremely
dangerous and brave feat, which took eight long months and which resulted in
the saving of around 400,000 ancient texts. Mr. Haidara's story is now a book, The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu,
written by Joshua Hammer and published by Simon and Schuster.
Books are revered the world over, libraries are
places where everyone can learn and understand the world as it once was, the
world as it is at present, and the world to come.
Unfortunately the number of 'bad-ass' librarians
in our libraries is going down every week. In the last six years 8000 jobs have
gone. That's a quarter of the permanent workforce. Unqualified volunteers
working in libraries now number 31,403.
The number of libraries that have closed over the
last six years is 343. Another 232 have transferred to community groups or
outsourced. A further 111 are proposed for shut down over the next year or so. You can read more about it here with all the stats on BBC NEWS, and on the CILIP blog if you want to know more.
One of the arguments used in favour of shutting
down some of the libraries is that they are underused and that not many books are
borrowed. I use my local library, and I sometimes use the library in the next
borough. My local library does not have the budget to buy many new books. The
library in the next borough seems to have more of a budget and gets more new
books in.
I can't request books from another borough for my
teen reading group, so if my library doesn't have them, then we're stuck. We're
getting a lot more stuck these days. Libraries are being run down. Then they
are closed.
I love fictional libraries, and there are many,
but nothing beats a real library.
My website
Twitter @savitakalhan
