A decline in the number of Cardiff residents using their local libraries was discussed by councillors yesterday.
Local facilities have been criticised as being below the Welsh average in comparison to the new £18.5m city centre library which opened in March 2009.
There has also been a 15% decline in spending on new books, figures from the Welsh public library standards and performance indicators 2009/10 revealed, due to cuts in library funding since the economic downturn began.
The reasoning behind the decrease in new acquisition of books is due to libraries such as Canton, Ely and Cathays (currently under refurbishment) using part of the budget to upgrade the facilities of the libraries by enabling wi-fi in each of the libraries.
Speaking at the meeting yesterday, Caerau Councillor Jacqui Gasson argued
"if we are to get young people back into libraries we need to provide state of the art equipment. We need to get more schools involved and get children more excited about reading."
Currently 79,518 individuals borrowed an item within the last year according to the CIPFA definition within Cardiff due to the impact of the new Cardiff central library representing 25% of the total population.
Cardiff has 280 public work stations across all libraries; however the age of the PCs has been subject to great scrutiny for poor performance and lacklustre internet connections. £70,000 of capital funding has been identified to replace and upgrade the facilities over two years.
The council is strongly backing libraries to get behind the introduction of MP3 and ipod docking terminals to allow the introduction of E-books which it believes could appeal to a wider market and be a cheaper alternative in this tough economic climate.
Technology or Welsh?
In an era when technological advancements have never been more prominent in libraries Rhiwbina Councillor Adrian Robson of the economy and culture scrutiny committee raised a point which revealed only 41% of public access PCs were taken up by users. Robson argued that the valuable space taken up by the computers could be replaced with bi-lingual classes for Welsh classes to library visitors."
Cardiff Libraries business plan has outlined regeneration for the city's libraries to build on the opening of the new central library.
Improvements to the library network were also announced, commencing the modernisation of Radyr Library, the upgrade of Cathays library and exploring the avenues of hiring more staff per library (some which currently only have two members of staff on any given day) to allow more flexible opening hours which benefit the public.
Saturday, July 17
Thursday, May 6
Cardiff Central was full of election fever earlier today as new voters felt the need to make their voices heard. A wide range of issues are brought people out to polling stations in the area, from immigration to the economy, and education, pensions and tuition fees were are all high on the agenda of constituents.
At Cardiff University Student Union, first time voters have been heavily targeted in local campaigns. One student said:
"We have received a lot of campaign fliers from the Liberal Democrats, sometimes two or three messages from Jenny Willott a week to gain our vote. We've only had one flier from Labour and the Conservatives.
"To us the scrapping of tuition fees would benefit so many families in allowing them to study at University like us. I think that in a democracy everyone ought to be given equal opportunity."
At the new Central Library in the heart of Cardiff, one couple felt the economic climate was the key issue. "The economy is what ought to be at the top of the political agenda," they said.
"People need to know exactly what steps politicians are going to take to ensure we do not fall into another recession like this. I must admit I haven't voted in the last two elections, however I'm tired of the claims from politicians and I think it's time that they truly took notice of the voters even if that means a hung parliament."
In Adamsdown, at the Howard gardens bowls pavilion, one gentlemen who has lived in the area for 55 years said he's worried about retirement. "Many of my friends have retired in the past three to four years," he said.
"They have not been able to survive on the state pension, I'm seriously considering staying on at work just to make ends meet.
At Albany Road Primary school, parents concerned about the state of the education system turned out to vote. A mother of two said:
"I would like to see class sizes cut, because my children aren't getting enough one to one tuition, they're getting generalized feedback which in my opinion simply isn't good enough. I feel that teachers have become too lenient with children, and that small disruptions means that my children have to suffer it's really not acceptable."
Cardiff Central is a three way marginal seat, with each of the main three parties having had control of the constituency since its creation in 1983. The seat which was held by Labour since 1992 for 13 years until Jenny Willott MP made history as the first woman and first Liberal Democrat to gain control of the seat in 2005.
At Cardiff University Student Union, first time voters have been heavily targeted in local campaigns. One student said:
"We have received a lot of campaign fliers from the Liberal Democrats, sometimes two or three messages from Jenny Willott a week to gain our vote. We've only had one flier from Labour and the Conservatives.
"To us the scrapping of tuition fees would benefit so many families in allowing them to study at University like us. I think that in a democracy everyone ought to be given equal opportunity."
At the new Central Library in the heart of Cardiff, one couple felt the economic climate was the key issue. "The economy is what ought to be at the top of the political agenda," they said.
"People need to know exactly what steps politicians are going to take to ensure we do not fall into another recession like this. I must admit I haven't voted in the last two elections, however I'm tired of the claims from politicians and I think it's time that they truly took notice of the voters even if that means a hung parliament."
In Adamsdown, at the Howard gardens bowls pavilion, one gentlemen who has lived in the area for 55 years said he's worried about retirement. "Many of my friends have retired in the past three to four years," he said.
"They have not been able to survive on the state pension, I'm seriously considering staying on at work just to make ends meet.
At Albany Road Primary school, parents concerned about the state of the education system turned out to vote. A mother of two said:
"I would like to see class sizes cut, because my children aren't getting enough one to one tuition, they're getting generalized feedback which in my opinion simply isn't good enough. I feel that teachers have become too lenient with children, and that small disruptions means that my children have to suffer it's really not acceptable."
Cardiff Central is a three way marginal seat, with each of the main three parties having had control of the constituency since its creation in 1983. The seat which was held by Labour since 1992 for 13 years until Jenny Willott MP made history as the first woman and first Liberal Democrat to gain control of the seat in 2005.
Tuesday, February 16
Political live debate
Like many new ventures this one found its way to me through the social networking website Twitter, from Toryradio. The venture in question is http://tinyurl.com/y9ctdbq this allows anyone who wants to take part in an online debate on any issue in which they choose. Toryradio's choice of topic happened to be Channel 4's Tower block of commons, where those involved with the conversation would comment and answer polls about the antics in the programme. This application has proven successful for other political debates such as Question Time or PMQs.
Doesn't like someone who's particularly acting upon the situation, has he reported this to the twittersphere? I doubt it, he say it wouldn't make a difference or that he doesn't know who hacked his account. He really ought to come out and make an appearance about the comment and set the record straight if he really is innocent!
Smithsreunion
There has been a great deal of commotion over the alleged comments from David Wright Labour MP for Telford who posted defamatory comments about the Conservative Party yesterday via his Twitter page. Wright said that his twitter account had been hacked by a Tory (Why anybody, especially a Tory would even consider hacking a twitter account, particularly Wright's is beyond me). The original can be seen on the BBC Website, humorous thing is that Wright claimed he edited his post, yet Twitter states you cannot edit posts. The suspicion is very high on this, however I'm sure Twitter would have a database of each tweet created, as well as the IP address of the user, therefore revealing the location, name and ISP of the user - surely this will solve the argument. The fact that Wright also re-tweeted the comment by adding his own personal touch creates even more intrigue - if you were not guilty of the tweet, why would you then go ahead and re-tweet it? surely you'd delete the comment and be done with it. Wright finally posted the following statement on his twitter page in regards to the incident
"What a commotion today. Looks like my tweets have been tinkered with. I will keep you posted"
Doesn't like someone who's particularly acting upon the situation, has he reported this to the twittersphere? I doubt it, he say it wouldn't make a difference or that he doesn't know who hacked his account. He really ought to come out and make an appearance about the comment and set the record straight if he really is innocent!
Smithsreunion
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