Loving the Library

Scotland’s authors are a pretty quiet lot, on the whole. You won’t find them leaping up and down to advertise anything on TV, since they are for the most part quite unglamorous, but when they get cross, watch out. Last month, they got seriously cross about Edinburgh City’s proposal to cut the hours of school librarians, meaning they would have no time to organise workshops and do all those imaginative literary things that bring books alive for kids. A Saturday morning demo was organised at top speed, letters were fired off to the Guardian and anyone else who would listen, and the Edinburgh worthies were shocked into red-faced horror by their sudden exposure as unfeeling philistines. As a result, they’ve back-tracked on their proposal – but libraries all over the country remain a soft target for cuts. Arran’s own library is probably safe, though it has not been immune to a reduction in the book-buying budget, but readers, be watchful, be vigilant. If we are not careful, books may become a luxury that has to be bought, and the dreams of good men like Carnegie lie scattered in the dust.