Let There Be Books

Image courtesy of FREADOM

"I stand against any library or any librarian anywhere in the world being imprisoned or punished in any way for the books they circulate. I plead with Castro and his government to immediately take their hands off the independent librarians and release all those librarians in prison and send them back into Cuban culture to inform the people."

Ray Bradbury on Burned Books in Cuba

Lou, it is great to hear from you, the office is missing you. And it is just as well you are married, because if we were two singles out on the prowl, we would always be fighting over the same men! Get well soon, lovely x

I subscribe to Library Link of the Day. They sent me an article about a project called FREADOM (I like it already), which is a reading project protesting against the burning and banning of books in Cuba. The article talks about the Cuban independent library movement and the penalties paid by independent librarians who attempt to supply banned works to the masses.

Later, I had an idea. Given the state of the public library service and the popularity of movements like bookswapping and freecycling - couldn't we start an independent library movement here?

There is already a (struggling) independent library sector in the UK - The Women's Library, The Feminist Library and the Working Class Movement Library, to name a handful of the best ones ever, objectively speaking - but couldn't we just redefine library provision as a collective of likeminded individuals (no Tories) lending books? We could invent a new cataloguing system and supply dissidence to the local masses We could also sell good coffee and chocolate cake. You know what I'm talkin' 'bout. We could hold cult members screenings of Shaun and the Dead, Spaced and Hot Fuzz. And some other stuff sometimes.

Just a thought. Either that, or anyone fancy a trip to Cuba?