Advocacy: Philip Pullman speaks to defend public libraries against cuts

[Erik_Kowal]

On 20 January 2011, the British author Philip Pullman delivered an impassioned speech to a public meeting called to defend the public libraries of Oxfordshire (UK) against savage spending cuts that would result in half the county's libraries either closing their doors or being staffed entirely by volunteers. In a scathing oration, Pullman criticizes politicians and publishers alike for their pusillanimity and their inability to discern the difference between profitability and value, as well as what he describes as "market fundamentalism, this madness that’s infected the human race".

His address has rapidly spread to a much wider audience via social networking media, and is published on the site falseeconomy.org.uk; here is the link to the speech.

I am grateful to my brother Jan for drawing my attention to this story.

[Wizard of Oz]

.. this battle is being fought locally for us too .. one local Mayor seems to think that the way to save money is to close libraries .. why waste money on all those books ???

.. and mass borrowings seem to be another plan of attack on the Isle of Wight to battle against stupid bean counting councils ..

WoZ in the stack