Public Libraries: As Good Today As They Have Ever Been

For National Libraries Week, East of the M60 looks at why public libraries have an important role in the 21st century

The first love for many bibliophiles: your local library, such as Dukinfield Library on Concord Way, which opened in November 1984.

Thank goodness for public libraries. With a parent or primary school teacher, they have helped ten of millions of Britons (or billions around the world) to get hooked on reading. Some, like this gentleman, have chosen the TV Times or the Manchester Evening News as their gateway drug (prior to borrowing their first book). Each day, many people call in for their literary fix. They come back for more every three weeks, sometimes carrying up to twelve items with them.

Whether Jackie Collins, Lewis Carroll or O.S. Nock, they can get sucked into a world of uncharted lands, plot lines, or travel back in time. Its mind altering substances, in hardback, paperback, or large print forms, are the written word. A psychosomatic substance for the theatre of the mind, dependent on one’s chosen interests.

Skelmanthorpe Band: Sunday Brass at the Boarshurst Band Club (October 2017)

Another great night with Jim Davies and Co. at the Boarshurst Band Club

Boarshurst Band Club, the Brass Vegas of the North, has played host to the good and the great of brass banding, from its present home since 1979. Almost a year after his previous appearance at Boarshurst, Jim Davies gave us another great concert to remember. It was one that gave us some good technical pieces, four memorable solo performances, and the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest winning song.