Frances Bell’s Blog

This story of a school library dispensing with the fiction librarian post filled me with sadness.  The reason given was  ‘a move towards the relocation and redistribution of non-fiction and fiction resources in the light of the new developments in a virtual-learning environment and interactive learning’.  The thought that budget was being diverted to the providers of a schools’ version of Blackboard is truly disturbing, particularly at a time when public libraries are closing.

We should no more marginalise reading novels, stories and poems in books, than we should expect youtube to replace live perfomances of drama.

I read this story in the Observer, and although I wish it was an exaggeration, I somehow doubt it.  Let’s make the best use of learning technologies but without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

As this rather old book might say - Why Me?

Originally uploaded by ex.libris