“A culture centre without books”
“The heat has not quite reached Fahrenheit 451, but a furious little row is raging within the bibliophile British, and Britophile French, communities in Paris. To the dismay of its 2,000 users, the British Council closed its Paris lending library-–the only British library in France-–at the end of last month. The last of its 15,000 books (there used to be as many as 70,000) are being crated up and given away to French universities and the new French national library. The space occupied by the old information technology (ie books) in the British Council’s splendid building overlooking the Invalides is to be given over to a computerised ‘knowledge and learning centre’. This will consist of an ‘open-learning area’ and a ‘video conferencing facility’.” - The Independent, July 30.
The TeleRead take: The Brits, of all people, should know better–whether it’s a “library” or a “culture center” involved. See our earlier thoughts on bookless libraries.
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