We rushed to leave the house this morning to get to the library in time for Storytime - only to find that it's been cancelled. Apparently it's not running throughout the summer holidays like it usually does, and it might also be reduced to once a month instead of every week!!
This is very frustrating, firstly because it's another one of our activities that will be closed for the next six weeks; both our Tuesday and Thursday morning activities will now be gone!
And longer-term, if they only run this activity once a month, not only will it be disappointing for those of us who usually attend, but people are bound to lose track of when it's on, or else sometimes not be able to make that particular day of the month, resulting in fewer people coming to each session; - and then the powers-that-be will argue that there's no demand for it! This is more or less what happened to our other library activity,
Rhyme Time. At the moment Storytime has a good turnout, but apparently it's all a question of resources. Surely encouraging kids to read is quite a good use of library resources?
These are great activities, they're very educational and they're fun. I've seen a great improvement in B. since we've been going. At first there was no way that she'd sit still and listen to a whole story, but now she listens to all four of them, and she loves to shout out the answers to the librarian's questions, as well as join in the songs and create some lovely artwork in the drawing activity at the end.
We love Storytime; it brings lots of children together in a fun learning environment. And it's free!!
There's some concern that reducing services such as this might be the the first step down the slippery slope to closing our library completely. It's a lovely little old library, serving quite a small area, which immediately places it in danger from those political creatures who take pleasure in shutting down local services (
see Guardian article on library closures). And if these childrens' services are removed then this will probably further their dastardly plans...
I'm not usually much of a campaigner, but this is bringing out the activist in me. I'm planning on writing to head librarians, local councillors, and even Boris if necessary! I'm going to try to rally some other mums and see if we can help save Storytime!
The campaign starts here...
Photo credit: holoweb
I'm thinking of pinning notices to trees. Lots of people seem to do that round here, whether it's to ask for people to look out for a lost pet, or to advertise things like aerobics classes. What do you think of this idea? (Other than the environmental impact - maybe I'll use tape rather than pins...)
