John Launer: The library, my treasure island
BMJ 2023; 381 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p1005 (Published 10 May 2023) Cite this as: BMJ 2023;381:p1005
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Dear Editor
The public library was at the heart of my social mobility.
John Launer’s eulogy to the public library jogged deep memories.[1] My parents left a small town in northern India, Moga, to settle in Glasgow, Scotland, arriving on new year’s eve in 1955. We settled, like many immigrants, in the Gorbals, a well-known slum. My father had left school at the age of nine years and my mother, to her lifelong chagrin, never went. Nonetheless, both my parents extolled the virtues of education.
We had no books. When I started school at the age of five my first language was Punjabi and I had a smattering of English. I was academically backward. Luckily, Gorbals Public library was at hand and a godsend. My first three books were borrowed, read and returned on the same evening. My first book was called How Big Is Big? I became a voracious reader. Our houses were small and the family size was large so there was no quiet study space. Luckily, the spacious reading rooms of Glasgow’s public libraries had lovely oak desks and chairs where I got down to serious after-school study.
As an undergraduate I enjoyed superb University libraries. In honours physiology year the dozen or so BSc honours students accessed the departmental library 24-hours a day. When I entered public health in 1983 I loved the familiar musty smell of the library in the Department of Public Health, Glasgow University. I knew I belonged in the library, the heart of scholarship and learning. The centrality of the physical library in both community and academia was soon to be swept away.
My educational and academic success was powered by the public library system. I found my treasure in the library-social mobility. Policymakers, please take note.
1. Launer J. John Launer: The library, my treasure island. 2023;381:p1005. doi: 10.1136/bmj.p1005 %J BMJ
Competing interests: No competing interests
Dear Editor,
A rich experience with a lingering thought is best shared, and that is precisely the piece.
The experience of library can vary widely - an undergraduate with a degree of stress atop for the ensuing examination. A resident wants some quick solution to a clinical situation or a preparatory for his dissertation. Yet in these phases of career, it is desirable to have extra-curricular reading -- history / philosophy of Medicine, anthropology, other systems of Medicine practiced in different countries of the globe for a wider view - professional and general. Faculty are in library for updating, getting familiar with the latest and keeping pace with advances in related subspecialties.
Other than professional, libraries provide a treasure house for those with appetite (the voracious included). The lighter movements of camraderie and socialising are ample in the precincts. The internet has substantially changed the scenario with users hooked to screens turning them individualistic and lonely as well. But library - Institutional or public should remain a place to be remembered and cherished. The number of 'personal libraries ', once a sign of aristocracy probably are dwindling, perhaps a show of possession rather than actual usage and delight.
Prof Murar E Yeolekar,
Dr Aditya M Yeolekar, Associate Professor, Mumbai
Competing interests: No competing interests
Re: John Launer: The library, my treasure island
Dear Editor
What a lovely article. and so true. We should be so proud of our libraries. John would find the same in my local library and probably any public library in the country. The trouble nowadays is that, unlike John, the powers that be, the decision makers don't have his sense of humanity and even if they were forced through the library doors there would be nil empathy or understanding of what libraries are doing and of how important they are to many in our communities. Decisions are made to cut library services, often using book issue counts as justification. As John discovered, libraries have for years now been offering a wealth of other benefits to its users which they would be unable to access, free of charge, in any other environment.
Competing interests: No competing interests