Current Affairs The Conservative Party

[Socrates]

Every website I go on at the moment has an advert from the Tory party.

They must be spending HUGE amounts online to add to the Tsunami they have behind them in the mainstream media.

21st century technology combined with 20th century propaganda.
The masses don't stand a chance when forces beyond their comprehension are determined to obtain their objectives.

If elections prove one thing, we get what we deserve. Not necessarily what we want.

 

[evilwebby]

Also:

Britain has closed almost 800 libraries since 2010, figures show

Annual survey shows sharp cuts to local authority funding have led to the loss of 17% of branches, alongside sharp staff and funding shortfalls

www.theguardian.com

Why is this a terrible thing? In today's world physical media is quickly becoming obsolete. Closing services which nobody needs any more is a chance to redeploy the resources more productively. Blockbuster and HMV aren't doing too well either.. should we use the power of the State to save them also?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Why is this a terrible thing? In today's world physical media is quickly becoming obsolete. Closing services which nobody needs any more is a chance to redeploy the resources more productively. Blockbuster and HMV aren't doing too well either.. should we use the power of the State to save them also?

Just under half of the population used a library in 2005, with that number falling to 33% by 2016. What's perhaps more interesting is that there are around 4,100 libraries in the UK, and between them they received 282 million visits, which sounds a lot, but when you break that down, it works out at an average of 186 visits per day per library. When you think that the British Library alone accounts for 1.6 million of those visits, and there will be some that get very few visits per day.

 

[Jebus_lives]

Just under half of the population used a library in 2005, with that number falling to 33% by 2016. What's perhaps more interesting is that there are around 4,100 libraries in the UK, and between them they received 282 million visits, which sounds a lot, but when you break that down, it works out at an average of 186 visits per day per library. When you think that the British Library alone accounts for 1.6 million of those visits, and there will be some that get very few visits per day.

Some seem to have been very slow to adapt. Of the ones I use, the best are still successful because they've diversified.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Some seem to have been very slow to adapt. Of the ones I use, the best are still successful because they've diversified.

Aye, I do like a good book shop or library.

 

[Blue 1]

Why is this a terrible thing? In today's world physical media is quickly becoming obsolete. Closing services which nobody needs any more is a chance to redeploy the resources more productively. Blockbuster and HMV aren't doing too well either.. should we use the power of the State to save them also?

Some of the services libraries provide are desperately important to some of the most vulnerable among us. Your blockbuster analogy is flawed.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Some of the services libraries provide are desperately important to some of the most vulnerable among us. Your blockbuster analogy is flawed.

Could you flesh out your thinking a bit here? I'm genuinely curious. I've seen demographic information on who uses libraries in terms of age, gender and employment status, but very little information on what they actually use them for.

 

[Dharma]

Why is this a terrible thing? In today's world physical media is quickly becoming obsolete. Closing services which nobody needs any more is a chance to redeploy the resources more productively. Blockbuster and HMV aren't doing too well either.. should we use the power of the State to save them also?

Are you serious? Comparing libraries to HMV and Blockbusters.
You obviously needed to use yours more often...before the Tories took it away.

 

[evilwebby]

Just under half of the population used a library in 2005, with that number falling to 33% by 2016. What's perhaps more interesting is that there are around 4,100 libraries in the UK, and between them they received 282 million visits, which sounds a lot, but when you break that down, it works out at an average of 186 visits per day per library. When you think that the British Library alone accounts for 1.6 million of those visits, and there will be some that get very few visits per day.

How dare you used bare facted facts to illustrate a point, Bruce.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

How dare you used bare facted facts to illustrate a point, Bruce.

Don't get me wrong, literacy is a wonderful thing, and access to books is a great contribution to society. Whether all of the libraries in the country contribute to that or not is up in the air I'd say.

 

[tsubaki]

Just under half of the population used a library in 2005, with that number falling to 33% by 2016. What's perhaps more interesting is that there are around 4,100 libraries in the UK, and between them they received 282 million visits, which sounds a lot, but when you break that down, it works out at an average of 186 visits per day per library. When you think that the British Library alone accounts for 1.6 million of those visits, and there will be some that get very few visits per day.

They’ve closed more than 500 libraries between those two points, and cut the funding for the rest by half a billion (resulting in fewer staff and libraries open for less hours) so perhaps it’s not surprising that less of the population now visit one.

Also I’d point out that even 33% of the population visiting at least one once a year would probably make them the most used bit of the state.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

They’ve closed more than 500 libraries between those two points, and cut the funding for the rest by half a billion (resulting in fewer staff and libraries open for less hours) so perhaps it’s not surprising that less of the population now visit one.

Also I’d point out that even 33% of the population visiting at least one once a year would probably make them the most used bit of the state.

Just saying, that if any facility is used 100-150 times per day, then it will struggle to justify its operation.

 

[tsubaki]

Just saying, that if any facility is used 100-150 times per day, then it will struggle to justify its operation.

That is a really easy argument to game though, as repeated governments have done down the years - make something difficult to use and, hey presto, people use it less.

Also individual visits per day doesn’t describe why people were there, how long they were there for or what they were doing.

I mean if you wanted to do that with GP surgeries someone could say that because (using the 307 million patient consultations last year and divided by the number of GP surgeries in the UK) they only saw around 112 visits per day to the surgery, that they mustn’t be that busy.

Of course they are that busy, if anything GPs are probably too busy seeing patients who may have serious health issues, and the fact they see them takes pressure away from other parts of the system. None of that shows up on “individual visits”, though.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

That is a really easy argument to game though, as repeated governments have done down the years - make something difficult to use and, hey presto, people use it less.

Also individual visits per day doesn’t describe why people were there, how long they were there for or what they were doing.

I mean if you wanted to do that with GP surgeries someone could say that because (using the 307 million patient consultations last year and divided by the number of GP surgeries in the UK) they only saw around 112 visits per day to the surgery, that they mustn’t be that busy.

Of course they are that busy, if anything GPs are probably too busy seeing patients who may have serious health issues, and the fact they see them takes pressure away from other parts of the system. None of that shows up on “individual visits”, though.

Indeed, and as requested earlier, I'd be genuinely interested in any data on how libraries are being used. All I could find was overall usage numbers and stats for age, gender and employment status. No real insights into how they're used.

 

[roydo]

They’ve closed more than 500 libraries between those two points, and cut the funding for the rest by half a billion (resulting in fewer staff and libraries open for less hours) so perhaps it’s not surprising that less of the population now visit one.

Also I’d point out that even 33% of the population visiting at least one once a year would probably make them the most used bit of the state.

My library now has "Staff Free" opening days, with access via your membership card. Naturally I only found this out when I went to it for some photocopying. Thought it was a pretty neat idea.