Saving Our Libraries: The DVDs …

You know, I’ve got to admit, I’ve got the news on, at the moment.

What with one thing and another … ?

I’m not so much surprised by Colonel Gaddafi putting his foot in his mouth — if his people all love him that much, they’d not be revolting — but what does worry me … ?

Is the simple fact that Hilary Clinton has said words to the effect of “We’re taking no option off the table”.

OK, granted the US Secretary of State was seemingly talking about the various discussions about trying to set up a No Fly Zone over Libya to try and stop Gaddafi and company to stop bombing his own country.

But when somebody who’s that senior in the US administration uses words like that — ones I believe I last heard someone in her shoes use in relation to Iraq — well …

I’m frankly eyeballing a thesaurus.

Mostly in order to polish up some seriously cynical comments.

Just in case the other shoe drops.

No, wait, hang on.

The coalition government’s already admitted there’s going to be redundancies in the RAF.

And David Cameron’s already said there’s going to be a No-Fly-Zone.

Exactly which of his own feet is Mr Cameron putting his shotgun at?

Or is he leaving that to Ashley Cole … ?

Lets move on, shall we … ?

»»•««

Because, of course, that’s not what I started this post, intending to write …

Not really …

You see, I’ve been emailing the library, again …

Or rather, I’ve been emailing Susan Carragher, the head of Essex County Council’s Library Service.

You see, on Sunday, I managed to borrow one of the wide selection of DVD’s they’ve got available.

It was unplayable.

Or , rather, it froze, and wouldn’t play, beyond a certain point.

Now the staff were fantastic.

And made sure I got a free DVD loan.

Which I took them up on.

Turn’s out the replacement — a copy of the William Hartnell Keys of Marinus Dr Who story — was a clunker, as well.

Bless ’em, the staff let me take out another freebie: which has worked out, ok.

But did prompt me to send this off.

Dear Ms Carragher

I’ve got to admit, I borrowed a DVD from Brentwood Library, this past Sunday.

And also have to admit, it was in an unplayable state: my DVD machine refused to play it, beyond a certain point.

Happily, the staff at Brentwood Library were pretty good about letting me have a free loan of another DVD.

Which turned out to be even more unplayable.

It wasn’t until I thought to actually check the disc itself, that I found it was in a terrible state: even worse, if possible, than the first I’d booked out.

Brentwood Library staff were, once again, fantastic about giving me a free DVD loan.

That third film was jumpy …

But just about watchable.

What I’d like to ask at this point is relatively simple.

Will Essex Libraries be either investing in industrial grade DVD cleaning/polishing kit, or outsourcing the maintenance of their stock of optical discs.

I know that Essex County Council is cutting the library services’ budget. And reducing the stock of films it keeps on DVD for its users.

But it strikes me that that makes maintaining the current stock even more important.

After all, I feel that we — the average Essex Library user — are owed quality, even if the service can’t quite manage quantity.

As soon as I get the reply … ?

I’ll let you know.