On Saturday we went to visit our brand new library; we love libraries and we've been really looking forward to this one opening. It also happens to be our nearest library now and it has a great maker space too.
It's a beautiful place and a great addition to the many libraries in Barcelona.
I took a photo of the library (the one above) and shared it on Instagram; one of my friends commented, "at least some people recognise the value of libraries". They're referring to the state of libraries in the UK, where I used to live. In sharp contrast to Barcelona the British government have, for some years, been taking money away from libraries and forcing many of them to close.
On the face of it I suppose it does seem like the British government don't really see the value in libraries, but I can't really accept that anyone could fail to see the value and importance of public libraries; it's hard to argue against free, universal access to knowledge (and so much more). In the UK at the moment a lot of services are getting cut because of what they're calling "austerity": the country is tightening its belt to help get the economy back on track (that's the theory, anyway).
The general narrative is that whatever gets cut just simply isn't seen as valuable. But maybe it's something else altogether: maybe some of those things that get cut are seen as very valuable indeed, it's just that the people who make the funding decisions really don't like the values they represent. Maybe by framing our perspective this way we can better understand what a government really wants to discourage, and start thinking about why.