Neil Gaiman: Libraries are cultural 'seed corn'

Neil Gaiman with ‘a little empathy machine’. Photograph: Lebrecht Music and Arts Photo Li/Alamy

A feral child who was raised in libraries

Toby Litt: You’ve described yourself as a “feral child who was raised in libraries”. What age were you when you were first drawn into a library, and why do you think they hooked you?
Neil: I was probably three or four when I first started going to libraries. We moved up to Sussex when I was five, and I discovered the local library very, very quickly. But I wasn’t really hooked until I got to the point where I was old enough to persuade my parents to just take me to the library and leave me there, which would have probably been about seven or eight. And at that point it was like being given the keys to the kingdom.
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Study Reveals that a Trip to the Library Feels the same as a $2,282 pay raise. | Mapachili

AJSC – LONDON

A recent study commissioned in the UK has revealed that a trip to the library gives the same stimulational effect as a pay raise – a £1,359 ($ 2,282) raise, to be exact. The study, published by Daniel Fujiwara, Laura Kudrna, and Paul Dolan states that A significant association was “found between frequent library use  and reported wellbeing. Using libraries frequently was valued at £1,359 per person per year for library users, or £113 per person per month.”

The study also reveals that participation in the arts and activity in sport have similar effects.

“We identify statistically significant associations between cultural and sport engagement and individual wellbeing and a range of other social impacts. Holistic consideration of all identified impacts will help to build a broad narrative on the social impacts of culture and sport,” the authors go on to state.

Few would object to such a revelation. When one walks into a good library, it tends to reveal endless possibilities of depths to explore. Who hasn’t entered a library empty handed and then exited with upwards of 20 books?

It is certainly not a political issue. Libraries add significant value to many lives. Here’s to years of studying and infinite resources for the avid learner.

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The strangely familiar browsing habits of 14th-century readers - MIT News Office

Today we constantly switch from one text to another: news, blogs, email, workplace documents and more. But a new book by an MIT professor reveals that this is not a new practice: In the 14th century, for instance, many people maintained eclectic reading habits, consuming diverse texts in daily life.

Consider Andrew Horn, the chamberlain for the city of London in the 1320s — meaning he was essentially the lawyer representing London’s interests in court against the king, who was Edward II for most of that time. The bound manuscripts in Horn’s possession, handed down to the city and preserved today, reveal a rich mixture of shorter texts: legal treatises, French-language poetry, descriptions of London and more. Read article....

BBC News - Cutting edge architecture for Birmingham's books

All images subject to copyright. Photos by Ed Ram and Martin Barber. Audio by Nicola Stanbridge. Listen to her report in full on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Saturday 31 August.
Music by KPM Music. Slideshow production by Paul Kerley.

Related:
Today - BBC Radio 4
Library of Birmingham
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.

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Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde | Tate

Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde | Tate

Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde

Tate Britain: Exhibition

12 September 2012 – 13 January 2013

£14, concessions available

 Combining rebellion, beauty, scientific precision and imaginative grandeur, the Pre-Raphaelites constitute Britain’s first modern art movement. This exhibition brings together over 150 works in different media, including painting, sculpture, photography and the applied arts, revealing the Pre-Raphaelites to be advanced in their approach to every genre. Led by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) rebelled against the art establishment of the mid-nineteenth century, taking inspiration from early Renaissance painting.

The exhibition establishes the PRB as an early example of the avant-garde: painters who self-consciously overturned orthodoxy and established a new benchmark for modern painting and design. It will include many famous Pre-Raphaelite works, and will also re-introduce some rarely seen masterpieces including Ford Madox Brown’s polemical Work 1852–65 and the 1858 wardrobe designed by Philip Webb and painted by Edward Burne-Jones on the theme of The Prioress’s Tale.

You’ll also see John Everett Millais’s first painting ‘en plein air’ entitled: Ferdinand Lured by Ariel 1849-50 and the politically charged: A Huguenot, on St Bartholomew’s Day, refusing to shield himself from danger by wearing the Roman Catholic Badge 1851-2.

The exhibition shows that the Pre-Raphaelite environment was widely encompassing in its reach across the fine and decorative arts, in response to a fast-changing religious and political backdrop, and in its relationship to women practitioners

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Treasures up for grabs at the London Antiquarian Book Fair - Telegraph

Treasures up for grabs at the London Antiquarian Book Fair - Telegraph

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Battle over library closures intensifies - Telegraph

Battle over library closures intensifies - Telegraph

By Martin Chilton, Digital Culture Editor

3:37PM GMT 13 Mar 2012

The government was today presented with a petition of 70,000 signatures against library closures collected by the Women's Institute.

Campaigners held a rally in London to coincide with a Parliamentary hearing by the Culture, Media and Sport select committee on library closures. Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has agreed to demands to produce a report by 2014 assessing the impact of changes in the library service for "good or bad".

Shadow culture minister Dan Jarvis claimed his opposite number faced becoming the "Dr Beeching of libraries" - a reference to Richard Beeching, who was behind the closure of many railway routes. Read more:

Culture Minister Ed Vaizey says there will be a report into library service as government is handed petition and he is branded 'Dr Beeching of libraries'.

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The working life of Museum of London » Blog Archive » Dickens Book Club November – The Mystery of Edwin Drood

The working life of Museum of London » Blog Archive » Dickens Book Club November – The Mystery of Edwin Drood

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