[KS] FW:: BRITISH LIBRARY (fwd)

[Anthony]

Dear All,

This message is being put on all the academic lists, but I don't think it
has got to ours yet, though I may simply not have got to it yet. Anyway...

Please cross-post and bring it to the attention of as many people as
possible.

       KEEP THE BRITISH LIBRARY FREE

     The Board of Management suggests that the British
         Library should no longer be free to readers.


         The proposal is for an annual fee of =A3300.

This fee would bear most heavily on students but also on the many other
readers unable to afford it - such as visiting academics from developing
countries. It would also apply to the Science Library, Newspaper
Library, etc. If approved, we can confidently expect that the charge
will increase in the future.

Free access to public libraries has traditionally been regarded as a
basic democratic right in Britain. Access should not be restricted to
those who are able to pay. In recent years, we have seen several attacks
on free access to knowledge.

The British Library has always been free. It is the most famous library
in the world and such an action would have significant symbolic force,
opening the way for similar cuts in the public sector elsewhere.

The introduction of this charge requires government approval. If we
mobilise enough support, we can stop it.

A campaign has started to do just this. Up to now we have set up a
webpage with the latest campaign news, have been holding regular pickets
outside the Library to inform the public, collect signatures and
donations and we have organised a public meeting on Thursday 20th
August, 6.30.

This meeting is being held both to publicise the issues and be a working
meeting to further build the movement to resist the imposition of
charges.

                          WHAT YOU CAN DO:

1. Next week we will be holding a regular picket at lunch-time (12-2 pm)
on Tues 18th, Weds 19th, and Thus 20th outside the Library's St Pancras
site, and we need your support.

2. BEFORE 28 AUGUST contact the British Library to express your concern.
See the British Library Strategic Review Consultation Paper at
http://www.bl.uk and write to: The Director, The British Library, 96
Euston Road, London NW1 2DB. Fax: 0171-412 7251.
E-Mail: The Director. Or better still, write to the Heritage Secretary,
Chris Smith MP, at the House of Commons, Westminister, London SW1A 2PW.

3. Pass on the address of this web-site to friends and colleagues who
might wish to support our campaign:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/8435/Library.html

Tell them to ask their contacts to pass on the message in their turn. In
this way we can set up a chain-reaction and support for the campaign
will spread.

4. Come to our Public Meeting on Thursday, 20th August at 6.30 pm in the
Friends' Meeting House, 173-177 Euston Road.

5. Join the picket outside the British Library held all day every
Tuesday. Sign the petition and distribute the leaflets.

6. Contact your Trade Union, Student Union or other interested
organisation and tell them what we are fighting for.

7. Help by sending a donation made out to: "Keep The British Library
Free" c/o Bryan Smith, 26 Devonia Road, London N1 8JH

                  The meeting with the Director:

On 4th August a party of four readers had a meeting with the Director,
Dr Brian Lang, to express your concerns to him personally. What emerged
from this meeting was that even were admission charges to be imposed
there would still be a shorfall in revenue for the library of several
million pounds.
This =A3300 fee is not a solution to the British Library's problem.

Quotes:

"Very few national libraries ever charge their readers." - The Director,
Dr Lang, 4th August.

"Were the British Library to come to me with a proposal to charge an
admission fee, I would look at that suggestion very sceptically." -
Chris Smith MP, Heritage Secretary, 24th July, "Today" programme, BBC
Radio 4.

Contact us at this e-mail address or write to our postal address:

                        "Keep The British Library Free"

                    c/o 1 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3QC

                Tel: Ian on 0171-249 9529 or Tithi on 0181-986 0762
___________________________________________________
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----------------------------------------------------
Derrick G. Pitard           lollard at worldnet.att.net

                    ". . . words themselves
Move us with conscious pleasure."
                             --W. Wordsworth



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