Entertainment For Lively Minds
The CD collection in my local library.
Posted by Dion Ashton on 10 May 2011 - 8:31pm.
My local library has an absolute corker of a CD collection and everything is yours for £1 or less a week.
As I feel sure they must be at LEAST a lurker here I would just like to raise my hat to the person who buys the CDs for the Birkdale Library - money must be awfully tight but Let England Shake was already in last Saturday.
Well done sir or madam! Well done! Your excellent taste is much appreciated.
- More from Dion Ashton.
- Login or register to post comments
-
Barcelona
Public libraries here have fantastic CD collections to borrow. People donate them and they are free to borrow and you can take 5 at any one time. You can also reserve ones that are out.
My local one is very big on Americana and has Complete collections of Wilco,Lambchop and Bill Callahan/Smog. Loads of Jazz too.
There is one library that has over 500 Heavy Metal CDs.
You can use your card at any branch in the city and it's all free. Return them late and the fines can be steep though.
Wow
That sounds even better, especially the chance to make your way through whole catalogues!
Royalties
My local library seems to have a decent collection too, i've only browsed quickly but I might dip into it soon.
I wonder how the royalties work for this, any idea? Does the library buy the cd outright and then any money made from renting it goes straight back to them? or do they have to registerr the rental with someone and a percentage goes to the artist? Hmm
Islington Libraries
Have got excellent stock, superb DVD library too!
Lucky buggers
My local library has hardly any decent books, let alone records. It hasn't even got any Wodehouse. But it has got about 50 different titles on the subject of raising one's self-esteem.
They have 50 because they don't have to pay for them.
They are all donated by the author of last year's best selling self-help title: Make Yourself Feel Better By Giving Stuff Away.
Edinburgh's good
60p per CD for three weeks and does Music DVDs too. Great for all sorts of things,you can browse the catalogue online, reserve items for free and they E mail when its ready for collection.
I'm pretty sure there's a rule on how long they should wait before being allowed to lend new items. Let England Shake isn't that long out and I've borrowed items really soon after release Admiral Fallow a month ago for example but is anyone seriously going to police this?
Lots of helpful friendly staff too. Hurrah for libraries!
I'd like to thank Stockholm public libraries
for allowing me to borrow about two hundred J.S. Bach CDs over the years. Great service. Absolutely top stuff.
Once upon a time,
in a land far, far away I used to buy music for several libraries in north London and I loved it. I got to have a shopping spree every month and scrutinise all the releases in Music Week and cherry pick what I wanted us to have. Of course I ended up buying multiple copies of things I wouldn't have given house room personally, but there was always scope to slip in some more interesting stuff. I was especially proud when someone came to the counter and complained about us having Meat Puppets cassettes but not the latest chart fluff by xyz (I forget who it was - and actually it was just out on loan at the time so I had bought it). I did get complimented a few times by customers too though and it made my heart swell.
At some point in the mid-1990s a rule came in saying we weren't allowed to put any new releases out until several weeks after the release date (I think it might have been three months but can't remember for sure) to try and stop it impacting on sales. I assume that must have been since abolished as I see new releases fairly regularly in libraries over the last few years. I honestly don't know if the Public Lending Right rules on payment apply to musicians as well as authors but would be interested to know.
I was thinking about starting a new box set series
and thought I might plump for 'Dexter'. Went into my local library the other week and they have got in the Series 1-4 box sets.
That's exactly how I watched Dexter
Not only is it cheap (£1.50 per loan for a DVD, whether single or box-set at my library) but, because DVDs are only loaned for one week, rather than 3 for books or CDs, it means I actually make a point of sitting down and watching them instead of letting them gather dust.