The Australian Library Journal

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Death of the public library: from ‘people's

university’ to ‘public-sector leisure centre’

Miroslaw Kruk

To cite this article: Miroslaw Kruk (1998) Death of the public library: from ‘people's
university’ to ‘public-sector leisure centre’, The Australian Library Journal, 47:2, 157-167, DOI:
10.1080/00049670.1998.10755842

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Death of the public library:
from 'people's university' to
'public-sector leisure centre'

Public libraries emerged as educational institutions during the second

half of the nineteenth-century. Their aim was the intellectual and
moral improvement of individuals and societies. After several decades
it became evident that public libraries had failed as 'people's
universities'. The reading public opted for entertainment instead of
instruction. Public libraries came to acknowledge the provision of
entertainment as a legitimate purpose and justification for their
existence. 'Give them what they want!' replaced 'Give them what
they need!' as the mission of the public library. The consequences of
this choice are not always fully understood.

Manuscript received ApriI 1998

There is no \irtue in the habit of reading for itself.

Richard Hoggan The uses of literacy

Then we shall give them the quiet humble happiness of weak creatures such as they are by
nature. We shall show them that they are only pitiful children, but that childlike happi- 'Social reformers
ness is the sweetest of all. . . They will ... be ready at a sign from us to pass to laughter and wishing to change
rejoicing, to happy mirth and childish song .... Yes, we shall set them to work, but in their individua!s and
leisure hours we shall make their life like a child's game, with children's songs and inno- society for the better
cent dance. were surprised that
Fyodor Dostoyevsky The brothers Karamazov the public resisted
their efforts to fight
ignorance.'
HAT ARE LIBRARIES FOR) THIS S!\IPLE QLTST!llN has troubled Anglo-American

W ibrarians and library historians during the century-long history of public

libraries. It is impossible to give a definitive and authoritative answer as
to why public libraries emerged at all. As Jesse H Shera pointed out,
'complex social agencies do not arise in response to a single influence; the dogma of
simple causation is an easy and e\-er-threatening fallacy' (Shera 1982)

THE AUSTRALIAt'< LIBRARY ]OURNAL MAY 1998 157

 Death of the public library: from 'people's university' to 'public-sector leisure centre'

Most nineteenth century commentators had seen in the library a noble and respect-
able institution. The movement to introduce free libraries open to anyone regardless of
social or financial position corresponded with the atmosphere of optimism penetrating
the second part of the last century Progress through scientific discoveries and industrial
deYelopment excited all social classes. Utilitarians preached the possibility of universal
betterment and happiness for everyone. It seemed natural that ignorance and indiffer-
ence to progress must be combated. It is not a coincidence that both public libraries
and compulsory primary schools, supported by local taxation, were introduced at the
same period- the second part of the nineteenth century (Public Libraries Act 1850 and
Public School Law 1870) in Great Britain. These institutions were meant to provide
formal and informal education. Intellectual and moral improvement of individuals and,
consequently, the whole society was their aim. Libraries as institutions of continuous
education served as an extension of the school system. They popularised knowledge
among adults and were sometimes called 'the peoples university'.
In the United States, conditions were distinctly different from those in England. Alexis
de Tocque\ille, a young French aristocrat visiting America in 1831 said:
... Nothing struck me more forcibly than the general equality of conditions among peo-
ple. I readily discovered the prodigious influence which this primary fact exercises on the
whole course of society; it gives the peculiar direction to public opinion and a peculiar
tenor to the laws; it impans new maxims to he governing authorities and peculiar habits
to the goYemed ... The more I advanced in the study of the American society the more I
perceh-e<l that this equality of condition is the fundamental fact from which all others
seem to be derived and the central point at which all my obserYations constantly termi-
nated. (<le Toque\ille 1994)
American leaders and thinkers believed that education could convert ordinary peo-
ple into enlightened citizens who would know their duty towards the community and
act accordingly Therefore, society had to establish schools and libraries as the back-
bone of democracy Today, the optimism of the last century seems to be simple-minded.

Disappointment
American optimism was shattered shortly after the emergence of public libraries. The civil
war that cost 600 000 young lives and permanently scarred the nation serves as a reminder:
social forces are difficult to control; the age of universal peace and happiness may never
come. Citizens of the British Empire tasted this bitter truth in the trenches of Europe during
the First World War - 900 000 of them died for a cause they did not understand.
At the same time as reformers in England and America were busy trying to improve
society, Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote Notes from the underground (1864), the refutation of
the mechanistic and optimistic utilitarianism of Bentham. The novels hero, or rather
anti-hero, is a spiteful character who does not want to live according to the pleasure
principle. Rational arguments are not convincing to him - he loathes reason. Predict-
ability, mathematical laws, a link between cause and effect may exist in a physical world,
but human affairs are indefinitely more complex. In every man, below a thin veneer of
ci\ilisation lies a beast. Suffering, desire for destruction and chaos co-exist with love,
yearning for heroism and stri\ing for happiness. Similarly pessimistic was Joseph Conrad
in his Heart of darkness ( 1902). Kurtz, at first a strong believer in civilisation, dies with
the words 'The horror! The horror!' on his lips. He realised what a man is capable of
doing - how much suffering can be inflicted on fellow human beings by people claim-
ing that it is done in the name of civilisation.

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 Death of the public library: from 'people's university' to 'public-sector leisure centre'

Social reformers wishing to change individuals and society for the better were sur-
prised that the public resisted their effons to fight ignorance. People did not appreciate
the fact that they could make themselves more knowledgeable. Romance novels and ad-
venture stories were preferred to the serious literature for self-improvement. The commu-
nity of librarians split into two opposing groups. One argued that the public had a right to
read what it wants and librarians must respect this choice. The second claimed that the
library is an educational institution - 'a worthless fiction' has no place in it. Librarians
who hesitated between those two points of view believed that fiction attracted reluctant
readers to libraries, who might later abandon popular novels for more elevating literature.
This theory of 'taste amelioration' was proved to be false by later developments -
most readers did not advance from lower to higher levels of reading sophistication. The
dilemma was indeed serious. Libraries in which books of little literary value were re-
moved from the collection experienced a sudden drop in circulation. But even without
such a drastic action libraries were not very popular. Peter Mansfield reports (Mansfield
1996) that, according to an editorial in the Ballarat Cowia of 1894, the popularity of
Ballarat City Library suffered greatly in the 1890s. From a high attendance in the 1880s
(2000 visits per week) the number of visitors dropped by as much as 75 per cent.
People were simply not interested - somehow they had to be attracted back to librar-
ies. In Mechanics' Institute Libraries:
A noticeable trend was a predilection for escapist reading and more books appeared un-
der the headings of travel, adventure. romance and biography. (Finh 1992 re the Heales,ille
Mechanics· Institute)

It became apparent that well-intentioned reformers misjudged the public taste. Uni-
versal literacy and the prmision of free libraries did not change society for the better.
Serious book bu)ing has not increased in proponion to literacy Some commentators
claimed that all that was achieved by universal education was the transformation of
illiterate ignorance into literate ignorance (Lea\is 1932). Most people looked for excite-
ment and not instruction. They preferred escapist literature to serious literature and
newspapers to books. Public taste was e\idently different from that of society leaders.
Many writers (Crane and Wordswonh, for example) thought that the newspaper was a
devil's invention. Kierkegaard hated newspapers and saw in them a sign of the coming
times of mediocrity Thoreau wrote that it is enough to read once about a dog run over
by a can to know about all dogs run over anywhere in the world.
Mehil Dewey wrote:
the worst journals, conducted merely as money making exercises, and catering to the
worst instead of to the best element of both society and individuals, are the most potent
factors of evil. and the greatest enemy which the ideal librarian has to combat in carrying
forward his best work (Dewey 1975).

The author of this passage turns in his grave - in today's school or public libraries
such journals and magazines are treated as legitimate sources of information. Newspa-
pers were the tele\ision of the nineteenth-century They have been, and still are, so
significant that the beginning of our tele\ision-dominated times can be traced back to
1842, the first year of publication of The Illustrated London News, based on a mixture of
inconsequential news and pictures (Mcinnes 1996).
In such a social atmosphere the original idea of the public library could not sunive.
The choice had to be made whether to serve a minority of more sophisticated readers or

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 Death of the public library: from 'people's university' to 'public-sector leisure centre'

to proYide entertainment for the mass public. Gradually, librarians accepted the prmi-
sion of entertainment as a part of their role:
By the m1d- l 890s the original theory of a puhlic lihrary, set forth in 1853 ... was extinct.
The onginal theory was that the public library is an educational institution in essentially
the same sense in which a public school is an educational institution \Williams 19881.

Entertainment was placed next to education and information as a purpose of the

public library

Revisionists
Librarians found it hard to accept that most people were not interested in reading or
learning. Some believed that people would read only if libraries held ·relevant' materi-
als. Re,·isionists among library historians accused the public library of being essentially
a middle-class im-ention for the oppression of the working classes. Michael Harris de-
scribes an early era in the American library moYement as an attempt of the Bostonian
elite to impose their values on the masses:
The trustee was generally male, ·past his time', white, Protestant, well-educated, wealthy,
a member of a social elite, and usually a member of a profession or a business executiw
\Harris l LJ78l.

Libraries were, according to this \iew, an element in a rigid social order used by a
cultural and social elite to maintain the status quo. Americans were afraid of being
swamped by uneducated immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. Past the school
age. ·new Americans· had to go through the imposed acculturation, and libraries were
thought to he effectiw in this process.
In England, there was a threat of social unrest among the lower classes, instigated by
Chartists and later by radical socialists and anarchists. Harris, whether we agree with
his wrsion of the history of libraries or not, represents a moderate scholarly re\ision-
ism, indispensable if we want to understand who we are and where we come from as
librarians. Although his description of the nineteenth-century American society contra-
dicts what de TocqueYille wrote, it is Yital that we are confronted with different points of
,·irn-. Too much in the library literature belongs to what Patrick Williams U 988) calls 'a
library folklore·.

Librarians as revolutionaries
Unfortunately re\isionism degenerated into political paranoia. Since the late 1960s,
librarians (especially younger ones) became obsessed with the political role of the pub-
lic library:
Educauon and the raising of poliucal consciousness is the keystone in the struggle for a
IT\ oluti,m.,,·hether the rew1luuon 1s seen as creating an alternative society or estahlishing
the d1cta1,1rship of the proletariat. and it is up to public lihraries to prcwide the means for
such an cducatwn \O'Kelly 1977 \a))

Libraries were criticised as bemg irrele\·ant to workers. Librarians were accused of

being on the wrong side of a barricade. They were supposedly in alliance with the
ruling classes, and workers rightfully arnided going to libraries - by doing so they
defended themselves from being contaminated by reprehensible middle-class ideas:
. hhranes are linked with education. and many people de,-clop a healthy dish kc for
educati,1n at an early age. Afler being forced to read hooks they hated at scho,11. a lot ,,f
,,.,,rking-dass children resolw newr to open another hook as long as they liw \O'Kclly
1977 \bll

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 Death oi the public library: irom 'people's university' to 'public-sector leisure centre'

Interestingly, revolutionary English and American librarians were more militant than
mainstream Marxists. When young revolutionaries advocated the presence of escapist
literature in libraries, the same literature was absent from libraries in communist coun-
tries - it had not even been published. Paradoxically, a young working-class boy or
girl growing up in communist Poland had a better chance to receive a solid education
than his peer in democratic Australia. Polish public libraries were full of translated
classics as well as French anti-no\·els; librarians were faithful to a century-old idea of
the library as an agency for indi\idual and social impro\'ement. Enlightened commu-
nists still believed in education, in contrast to teachers and librarians of Trotskyist or
Maoist leaning in democratic countries.
The attention of'progressive' librarians shifted from users to non-users, alternatively
called 'disadvantaged' or 'culturally deprived'. It is wonh noting that these terms are
misleading euphemisms; someone who made a choice not to read or learn cannot be
called disadvantaged. The difficult question 'why are libraries not attractive enough to
ordinary people?' has been asked over and over. Librarians wanted to be loved by
everyone - they despaired when circulation numbers indicated a limited interest in
libraries.
Critics of this preoccupation with trying to please the public at any cost were ac-
cused of being elitists who despised the masses. In some cases such accusations have
probably been justified. One feels uneasy reading Williams:
.trying once more to make a library an instrument for the self education of the masses
is impossible. The masses haw other commitments. Librarians who undertake to re-
store the identity of the library must do so without the \·ision that inspired their predeces-
sors. the nsion of educating the masses \\\"illiams 1988).

Williams does not explain his understanding of the term 'masses'. He does not elabo-
rate, either, on what the masses' 'other commitments' are.

Revolt of the masses

Williams refers to the concept of mass culture which is not very popular nowadays.
Hailed as an epochal discovery in the 1930s, it later lost its appeal. Onega y Gasset,
once a famous 'discoverer' of the mass and propagator of the anti-democratic philoso-
phy of society, disappeared from the universities together with his book Revolt of the
masses (the copy of which, held in the Main Library of the Monash University, has not
been borrowed for the last 25 years). Onega y Gasset predicted nothing less than the
end of civilisation unless the triumphant march of the masses was not stopped. By the
'mass' he understood a homogenous multitude of mediocre indi\iduals resembling
each other in taste, intellectual qualities and lack of interest beyond the most base
needs. The mass takes everything for granted, not understanding or appreciating the
effons of exceptional indhiduals v.ithout whom progress (and, indeed, the very exist-
ence of a ci\ilised society) is impossible:
... they do not see, behind the benefits of civilisation, marvels of invention and construc-
tion which can only be maintained by great effort and foresight, they imagine that their
role is limited to demanding these benefits peremptorily, as if they were natural rights
(Ortega Y Gasset 1961 (a))

The mass-man accepts himself entirely He never questions himself as a person or

his ideas of the world. The universe has no mysteries - it can be described with math-
ematical precision; in the mass-man's mind there is no place for amazement. Revolt of

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 Death of the public library: from 'people's university' to 'public-sector leisure centre'

the masses reads like the manifesto of an aristocratic minority defending civilisation,
threatened by the onslaught of a barbarian mass. It starts with an announcement as
dramatic as the opening lines of The communist manifesto, 'A spectre is haunting Europe
- the spectre of communism'. Gasset goes on to say:
There is one fact which, whether for good or ill, is of utmost imponance in the public life
of Europe at the present moment. This fact is the accession of the masses to complete
social power (Ortega Y Gasset 1961 (b)).

Many librarians accept Ortega y Gassets description of Western societies, although

they disagree as to their own role. Some of them want to be defenders of civilisation by
serving only a like-minded minority of serious readers (vide Williams' book). The ma-
jority accept the choice made by the public to read for entertainment only Those uncer-
tain which group they belong to, agonise over the difficult choice. At present, public
libraries are quickly becoming entertainment centres, although this situation may change.
The future is difficult to predict, but the possibility that the pendulum will swing back
cannot be excluded - the idea of library as an educational institution may be resur-
rected.

Give 'em what they want!

For several years, a fundamental shift has been taking place in our libraries. The origi-
nal idea of a library seems to have been betrayed and abandoned. The majority of
librarians thought that the only solution in this quest for library users was to always
give people what they wanted. The factor which should not be ignored is an instinct of
self-preservation: librarians could not survive without users - they must attract the
public at any cost. The drawback to this attitude was that by doing so libraries were
exposed to enormous competition from commercial providers of entertainment - tel-
evision stations, organisers of sports events, video libraries.
Will this move from 'people's universities' to 'public-sector leisure centre' succeed in
bringing more people to libraries? Even if it does, neither individuals nor society gain
any benefit from it. Indeed, the habit of visiting public libraries exclusively for escapist
entertainment can be harmful.
A curious trend of the last several years is a growing acceptance by librarians of
popular philosophy and psychology, which I suspect is a euphemism for paranormal,
psychic and similar phenomena. Many libraries have hundreds of such books in their
non-fiction (sicl) collections. Often these books pretend to be a legitimate source of
information and may even be found in the reference section (like Man, myth and magic:
the illustrated encyclopedia of mythology, religion, and the unknown edited by Richard
Cavendish) The irony is that public libraries were originally established to combat
prejudice and superstition. Now librarians have reversed this attitude and promote it.
Hence, readers may have difficulties with finding a standard history of philosophy but
can always borrow a book about Nostradamus, chiromancy, alchemy, witchcraft, UFOs,
bending forks from a distance and how to make money by wishing for it intensely
Yet again, we may follow Americans in their attempt to reinvent public libraries to
attract more visitors by making libraries resemble retail stores. This new philosophy
was proudly expressed in Give 'em what they want!: managing the public library. (Balti-
more 1992). The book describes the regional library services in Baltimore county, where
librarians embraced 'the worthiness of the common persons taste' as a legitimate inter-
est for public library response':

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 Death of the public library: from 'people's university' to 'public-sector leisure centre'

Regional superstores, community stores and outlets are where they [Safeway, Wal-Man,
Macy'.s] make their sales, make their profits. This is a rational, logical concept, transferable
easily to any retail organisation like libraries, where continued viability and existence
depend on meeting current needs.

The authors of this book scoff at libraries located in middle-class suburbs with their
presumably 'pretentious' collections. In Baltimore, they serve a disadvantaged public
who are given what they want. Baltimore librarians little understand that by doing so,
they make their library visitors even more disadvantaged. Again, while the middle-class
is helped by its libraries to face the real world, the Baltimore public is offered 'the
childlike happiness' (Dostoevsky) of the illusory and sanitised world created by adver-
tisers and opportunistic writers and publishers. One may suspect that Robinson, the
director of Baltimore County Public Library, is a shrewd businessman concerned pri-
marily \\ith the 'continued viability and existence' of his business (in other words the
library). 'Customers' will support it only if they are given a right 'product'. Librarians'
jobs are at stake, and thats what really counts.

ALIA statements and the library practice

Confusion among Australian librarians is as great as among their British and American
colleagues. ALIA produces statements which have little in common with reality (see ALIA's
website at http://www.alia.org.au or inCite). Library schools teach prospective librarians
how to be successful managers more than anything else. Public libraries, forced to be
managed as if they were businesses, try to introduce the latest management theories into
their practice (the same trend and the same language can be observed in secondary schools).
Library mission statements still contain three traditional goals: information, recrea-
tion and education. Whether those pronouncements are taken seriously by librarians
themselves is another matter. The primary purpose of mission and vision statements is
to fulfil the bureaucratic need for written policies, not necessarily reflecting what is
being done in practice. They are, in most cases, written in library 'newspeak'.
Melbourne inner-city public libraries proudly profess a commitment to serving the
information, recreation, education, literacy and language needs of the community Yet,
a description of one non-fiction collection reveals the true nature of its services:
The non-fiction collection aims to pro,ide material across a wide range of subject areas, in
particular those which are popular and requested by the community. Several areas of
continuing popular interest which are reflected in the adult English-language collection
include health, self-help, small-business management, an, craft, cookery, biographies,
popular philosophy and psychology, gardening, car manuals, pet care. travel guides (Mel-
bourne City Libraries 1992).

Those subjects have very little to do with education and information and a lot with
popular hobbies. What about the politics, the history, the economy and other 'serious'
subjects?
In its Statement on libraries and literacy, adopted in 1979 and amended in 1996 (ALIA
1996) ALIA describes an information-based society, lifelong education and 'the respon-
sibility held by public libraries as agencies for supporting and supplementing educa-
tion within their communities'. As often claimed before, the survival of democracy is
made conditional upon the political and social engagement of well-informed citizens.
Libraries, as 'educationally-oriented', have a role to play in the creation and mainte-
nance of a ci\il society. Ha\'e public libraries abandoned this role, despite the obliga-
tions claimed for them by ALIA?

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 Death oi the public library: irom 'people's university' to 'public-sector leisure centre'

Cranbourne Public Library - a working-class library

Casey-Cardinia Library Corporation defines as its vision the provision of 'educational,
informational, cultural and recreational public library services that are accessible to the
community and delivered with efficiency and commitment'. Its librarians are commit-
ted to 'continuous improvement, quality, best practice, competitiveness, cost-effective-
ness, customer-focussed service delivery, accountability, access and equity, innovation,
responsiveness and flexibility' (Casey-Cardinia Library Corporation (nd)) - all de-
rived, perhaps, from a handbook on management. Who are their competitors - other
libraries or commercial providers of information (or entertainment)?
Even a short visit to Cranboume Public Library may suggest an alternative perspec-
tive. The main function of the library seems to be commercialised entertainment. This
is particularly evident in the periodicals section. The collection is almost entirely com-
posed of glossy magazines which are not much more than aggressive advertising pub-
lications with heavily-illustrated articles attached. As the advertising 'industry' works
best when it targets a well-defined group of people according to their interests, particu-
lar magazines serve a narrow segment of the public. Amongst titles on display were:
Australian Country Craft and Decorating; Australian Gourmet Traveller; Australian Handy-
man; Australian Golf Digest; Australian Woodworker; Australian Surfing Life; The Owner
builder; Bride-to-Be; Carter's Antiques and Collectables; Hoofs and Horns; Joe Wilder Muscle
and Fitness; Massage; and McCall's Needlework.
Text is of a superficial nature and dominated by photos. In many cases the distinc-
tion between articles and advertising is blurred. Publishers believe that sex sells, and
they exploit this rule to the utmost degree. The trend is to put a picture of a naked or
almost-naked girl on the cover no matter whether it is relevant to the content of a
magazine or not (as in Sport Inside and Nature and Health, for example).The composi-
tion of the collection has deteriorated in recent years. Before the library was moved to
new premises, The Bulletin and Time were available - they have disappeared since.
Access to other titles of a similar or more serious nature appears to be denied to
Cranbournians.
The present periodical collection hardly meets the 'educational, informational, cul-
tural information needs' of local citizens as claimed in the mission statement. Even the
recreation provided by magazines is of indifferent quality and connected with the pres-
sure to buy advertised products (good examples are Bride-to-Be and Joe Wilder's Muscle
and Fitness).
In the non-fiction collection, the following titles were displayed with new books (on
15 October 1997): The encyclopedia of rock: comprehensive rock reference edited by Michael
Heatley; The colours of love: getting to know your romantic self through colours by Dr Max
Luchner; Ultimate golf techniques: improve your game with the world's great golfers by Malcolm
Campbell; Fine food from country Australia; recipesfrom Australia's best count1y restaurants
and guest houses edited by Paul Brewster; Country kitchens by Jocasta Innes; Good loving,
great sex: finding balance when your drives differ by Dr Rosie King.
Again, all for the senses, nothing for the mind. There is no balance at all between
representing the pleasures of the body and more humanising mental activities like self-
reflection and encouragement to understand the world of social and cultural affairs.
Books on tape repeat the pattern of printed books. Romances and crime stories
dominate, with a small part of the collection devoted to 'popular psychology'. The

164 MAY 1998 THE AUSTRALIAN LIBRARY JOURNAL

 Death of the public library: from 'people's university' to 'public-sector leisure centre'

section of books for adolescents is almost entirely devoted to horror stories. Romances
seem to be less popular. Several authors of horror books have hijacked teenagers' imagi-
nations, with an enthusiastic approval of teachers, librarians and publishers. Christopher
Pike, Diane Hoh, R L Stine produce books by the dozen. The series in this genre in-
clude: Goosebumps, Nightmares, Terror academy, and Point crime. Romances published in
series like Boyfriend Club, Sweet Valley, and Sweet dreams are less-prominently displayed
in the library - girls, traditional readers of this kind of books, tend to read the same
literature as boys do now, namely horror stories. The 'newcomer' in the adolescent
book market, Horoscopes - a series in which a story is based on a causal link between
the signs of zodiac and the fate of individuals - is growing in popularity
Cranboume is a working-class area, and, consequently, people living there have
relatively little formal education. On the face of it, the local library seems to have con-
cluded that residents do not require 'purposeful educational. .. reading'. If this is the
case, it seems to contradict what ALIA urges librarians to do:
The library profession is dedicated to fostering in all people a lifetime habit of purposeful
educational and recreational reading for the enjoyment, stimulation and delight it brings.
(ALIA 1996)

Similarly, the small public library in Doveton, another working-class suburb, has an
equally uninspiring collection of books and periodicals. The question has to be posed:
is there a link between the socio-economic profile of a suburb and the quality of library
materials? Do librarians discriminate in relation to Cranboume and Doveton?

Box Hill - the library for the middle-class

An illuminating comparison can be made between the periodicals on display in the
library in Cranboume at Box Hill, a middle- and upper-middle-class suburb. The Box
Hill Library collection contains among other titles, 21 C: previews of a changing world;
New Statesman and Society; History Today; Time Australia; Bulletin; Quadrant; Far Eastern
Economic Review; The Economist; and Australasian Science and Astronomy. These periodi-
cals are certainly not vehicles for advertisers to promote their products - Quadrant is
almost devoid of advertisements. The different quality of the periodicals collection in
Box Hill cannot be explained by the presence of a big TAFE college. Cranboume Public
Library shares the building with the local TAFE, which does not have its own library

Public libraries - between Hollywood and MacDonalds

It is unfortunate that we in Australia have more and more public libraries repeating the
'Baltimore pattern'. Richard Hoggan, who thoughtfully analysed new trends in reading pat-
terns among English working-class in The uses of literacy (1957) makes a harsh judgement
on the prevailing model of library services in the whole of the English-speaking world:
The tide flows strongly in fa\'our of the populist. the \'alueless public library. the library
service has lost its soul and, desperately seeking some JUStification for its existence, yeers
between pop-marketing in imitation of the big chains - the MacDonalds and Burger
Kings of the printed word - and trying to be a suh-branch of information processing
(quoted in West 1991).

Robert Snape, in his revisionist book Leisure and the rise of public libraries, renames
librarians as leisure managers. He wants the library to be more like a swimming pool or
a municipal park and less like an informal learning institution. Again, there is a large
dose of self-interest in this attitude:

THE AUSTRALIAN LIBRARY JOURNAL MAY 1998 165

 Death of the public library: from 'people's university' to 'public-sector leisure centre'

There would seem to be considerable benefits to the library profession in adopting a more
leisure-oriented ideology (Snape 1995).

These two opposing points of view cannot be reconciled. They differ not only in
regard to libraries but, more importantly, in their different visions of the individual and
society The author of this essay is on Hoggart's side. What Snape and Robinson postu-
late is the wrong way to go. Librarians - dissidents in this country - must make
themselves visible (and audible) and warn the public what the consequences of a fur-
ther trivialisation and commercialisation of libraries, schools and universities may be:
the disappearance of a civil society

References
ALIA (1996), Statement on libraries and literacy, http://www.alia.org.au/policies.html
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 Death of the public library: from 'people's university' to 'public-sector leisure centre'

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Appendix 1
Periodicals in Cranboume Public Library (as at 15 October 1997): Arts, Australian Art-
ist, Australian Country Craft and Decorating, Australian Country Style, Australian Gourmet
traveller; Australian Geographic, Australian Wellbeing, Australian Handyman, Australian
House & Garden, Australian Home Beautiful, Australian Personal Computer; Australian Pho-
tography, Australia's Parents, Australian Golf Digest, Australian Country Style, Australian
Woodworker; Australian Surfing Life, Modern Fishing, Modern Boating, Gardening Australia,
Dolly, Earth Garden, Ecos, Elle, Better House and Gardens, Bride-to-Be, Byte, Carter's An-
tiques and Collectables, Cleo, Cosmopolitan, Girlfriend, Genealogist, Geo, Grass Roots, Hand
Made, Hoofs and Horns, Internet World, Joe Wilder Muscle and Fitness, Massage, McCall's
Needlework, Mortgage, New Scientist, Mother and Baby, Mad, Motor; Modem Boating, Mod-
ern Fishing, Business Review Weekly, Movie, National Geographic, Nature and Health, One
on One, Sport Inside, Popular Mechanics, Rolling Stone, Vogue Australia, Vogue Living, Vogue
Entertaining, Our house, The Owner builder; Wheels, Women's Day, Your Garden, Shape,
Sports, Street Machine, Two Wheels, Women's Weekly.
Appendix 2
Internet sites for adults on Cranboume Library home page (15 October 1997; http://
home.\'icnet.net.au/-ccldindex.htm). 'Especially for you, a list of sites for kids and big
kids which are just for fun! [part 2] sites for big kids: Alien Autopsy and How to make an
alien, Australian Skeptics Homepage, Beyond the Black Stump, Bunny Survival Tests, Chat-
ting: Vicnet list of chat sites, Cockroach World, Dilbert Zone, EntertainmentOz, Entertainment
Central, Find-a-grave: the resting places of the ex-famous, Games kids play, Hollywood Re-
porter; Hotsheet: Whos who of web sites, lg Nobel P1ize, Internet Cartoons Forum, Learn2.com:
Ability utility, License Plates of the World, Looney Tunes, Myer-Briggs Personality Test Online,
NeoScience Institute, Online Tests (psychological and other), Oxford Stunt Factory, Oz TV
Shows on the Net, Plumbing Poetry, SETI: Search for Extraterrestial Intelligence, Sport: ex-
plore our links to various sports, Useless information, Weird fact of the day, Where did we go
last week?: Internet usage, Ye Olde English Sayings. More fun sites will be added over time,
so come by regularly and have a look.'

Miroslaw Kruk migrated to Australia in 1987. He holds a Bachelor's Degree (Polish language and
literature) from Warsaw University and a Graduate Diploma in Library and Information Studies
from Monash University, awarded in 1997. He lives in Melbourne and works as a labourer in a
factory.

THE AUSTRALIAN LIBRARY ]OURNAL MAY 1998 167