11...Replacing Birmingham Central Library

Dear sir or madam,

Will the Library Of Birmingham become a white elephant?

As a regular user of Birmingham Central Library I am aware of its limitations. Those limitations, caused by a lack of floor area due to changes in technology and leisure patterns during its lifetime, have caused councilors and bureaucrats to struggle over years to give birth to a better library that will satisfy all needs. This project has taken so long to conceive that it is in danger of a still birth.

The changes in technology I refer to are the introduction of music CDs, DVDs and internet enabled PC's. Birmingham City Council is rightly proud of its music department, one of few in the country. Decisions made by government are often dictated by advances made in technology. Birmingham City Council has yet to appreciate this.

In less than a couple of months we have seen the African country, Rwanda, and also Stockholm and Oslo connect to 500 Mbps mobile 5G internet. LG, Panasonic, Samsung and Phillips all make internet televisions. Sky 3D HD will be available in the UK from April 2010. Home entertainment system manufacturers abandon the CD player in favour of digital streaming. Total music CD sales fell 3.5% in 2009, the fifth year they have fallen, to 128.9 million. During the same period CD downloads rose 56.1 % to 16.1 million. As Google puts the world's books on the internet, advances in e-ink technology have seen the launch of the Amazon Kindle e-ink reader in two sizes, as it announces a 71% leap in profits in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 238 million pounds. CEO Jeff Bezos highlighted the popularity of its Kindle electronic book. The similar Sony touch screen with USB or SD card slot, and Intel's Reader which can scan and read documents verbally for blind people, also compete with Amazon. Apple announce the more expensive i-Pad tablet, which can digitally stream books from Apple i-Books and arrange text, pictures, video and sound as desired, in its up to 64GB memory. These products can store many books. As this technology catches on it will encourage authors to by-pass traditional publishers, leading to a far cheaper product. Technical books will be far easier to correct and update. Larger displays will be ideal for production engineers on the shop floor and project engineers on construction sites, where the risk of damaging or losing, or not having the latest version of engineering drawings is high. Eventually governments will be obliged to outlaw the use of timber and paper, for ecological reasons.

As welfare benefit and National Health Service dependence increases from an ever growing elderly and refugee population, the number of infirmed people rises within our population. Many of these have no way of getting to a public library, nor of it getting to them. To many of them the internet is not a word in their vocabulary, but it's highly likely that it soon will be.

Television channels in the UK are in dire need of revenue. The TV licence is not enough.

The internet offers advertising revenue in almost unlimited amounts through person specific advertising on a global scale. Cost reductions in the UK will be made by shutting down terrestrial transmitters. Viewers will be obliged to connect to Freesat, if it is still available, or connect to the internet. At a stroke, almost the entire population will be required to become computer literate as the TV licence is replaced by an internet licence. Digital streaming will become the accepted means of data transfer, and all within ten years. This is only one step away from granny managing her bank/building society accounts and pension, paying her utility bills and buying her groceries via the internet, and of course digital streaming. This at a time when my 92 year old mother cannot even operate her Freeview remote control, but constantly tells me, "you can learn a lot from soap operas." She is going to have to learn a lot about IT if she wants to continue viewing them, and pay for her TV/Internet licence and ISP fees, which could be compulsory for every home and business in the country. An e-commerce web site is likely to become compulsory for every business, as will be the permanent employment of a web-master and IT manager if this nation is to get itself out of the economic fix it is in.

This of course beggars the question; in a world of digital streaming of books, newspapers, magazines, music, movies, radio stations and television, what future have book and music stores, and public libraries? In what state are our libraries in?

I must admit that internet access at Birmingham's Central Library can be a bit of an ordeal. If you can remember your 14 character membership and 4 number PIN, that is only the start of the ordeal. Sitting there next to the screechy escalators your mind becomes a complete blank. If you have not written out your 'to do' list the night before, the screeching acts like white noise during interrogation. Next comes the neighbours who invariably are having a noisy conversation in pigeon English to one side, whilst on the other, the illegal immigrant, straight off the lorry from Afghanistan, has taken off his smelly trainers, as every other PC user pops their head up and looks around to see where the stench is coming from. You look up at the ceiling and notice there is no sprinkler system. At the entrance to the music department is a sign reading 'Do not be alarmed if the alarm goes off as you enter.' It is meant to work on the way out. So much for the security system. On the counter is the sign 'thieves and pickpockets operate in this building', or words to that effect. Whilst using the catalogue PC, it keeps rebooting every quarter of an hour resulting in the words 'rebooting counterfeit operating system.' as for requesting new albums, I have been waiting over two months for some of the 22+ on my list. Some are in the building, but due to staff shortages they have yet to be processed. Prices for borrowing are likely to rise considerably once the new Library of Birmingham is completed, just as Virgin rail fares make excursions to London unaffordable to those on benefit. Come to think of it, the only new album I have received in the last three months was 'Stop That Train' by Clint Eastwood & General Saint. It is difficult to see conditions being any better at the new Library of Birmingham. It is not difficult to envisage a better environment, sitting on a sofa cuddling 'er indoors whilst looking at an internet enabled TV at home...dream on.

Birmingham City Council will tell you that public libraries are used for more than just the lending of books, CDs and DVDs. They are centres for academic research and for job training. As regards job training, even that is under threat. IBM now leads an international project to develop AI (artificial intelligence), probably based upon Intel's 48 core cloud chip with 1.3 billion transistors, whilst the EU leads an international project on the wet computer, an artificial brain. It is only a matter of time before the concept of working for a living is brought to an abrupt end.

The new Library Of Birmingham should last for at least fifty years and be useful throughout that period. I can see no way in which that can be accomplished. As such, to proceed with this project, at a time when the nation is all but bankrupt, would be an act of unforgivable folly. The present central library, a hollow inverted stepped pyramid, is being replaced by a kitchen scouring pad with marzipan on top. It will contain an amphitheatre for poetry recitals. I think I speak for many when I say that we need an amphitheatre like ancient Rome needs a cellular phone mast, without the phones. It makes one wonder what kind of intelligence is employed by BCC. "Friends, Brummies, lend me your ear." It doesn't quite sound as majestic does it? All this has come about through numerous meetings of civil servants, architects and construction companies over a period of years. Architects are like politicians. They come up with grandiose schemes wrapped up in a fancy facade to appeal to the general public, at great expense, completely ignoring practicalities. People with degrees but with little sense of realism and responsibility. I know, I live in such a building. HMG spends a fortune on construction projects. When it comes to buildings, they often have little idea about what to put in them. It's plainly obvious that Birmingham needs a dominant mayor to kick arses and bang heads together. There is a feeling amongst the masses that HMG knows best. Don't believe one word of it. We are bankrupt. With the closure of Leyland, LDV, HP Sauce and now Cadbury, what have we left to export when what remains is owned by multi-nationals who hand out orders from places like Toulouse and Tokyo. Politicians to Robben Island, South Africa? We are not out of recession. It is the balance of trade figures that you have to watch. We are broke, skint....come to think of it, I might need a library some day just to keep warm in.

This project is projected to cost 197 million pounds of hard earned tax payer's money. Over the last thirty years BCC have let the West Midlands become the worst unemployment black spot in the country. As a retired engineering draughtsman with ten academic years of higher education under my belt but only fifteen years of employment, I naturally have nothing nice to say about these thumb suckers. I have even less to say about the people who put them in that position of responsibility, namely the dumbed down electorate.

My home is connected to BT, Sky and Virgin Media, but I cannot afford any of their services. The internet was made unaffordable to many by the Conservative Thatcher Government in the late 1980s who created a free-for-all instead of awarding the project to one company, or selling off the task in blocks like North Sea oil concessions. Duplication of services has led to higher prices. HMG has over the years done its utmost to slow down the internet and make it unaffordable. Will 4G licences be any cheaper than 3G? Will the next government be more aware of the vital importance of the internet in the global economy than the present one? Will the media make the general public more aware of politics and technology? We do need a parliament composed of highly trained and relevantly qualified independent technocrats, who understand technology and its importance, don't we? Unfortunately we have a media that cannot even stop the rot in manufacturing here in the West Midlands over decades.

We live in a society which is not managed by government, but by events. We hear about HMG's over spends on IT projects. Now we have something similar on our own front door step, in full view of all community charge payers. This project will turn much of Centenary Square into a noisy and messy construction site. As for the existing Central Library, BCC will demand its redevelopment, turning a pedestrian choke point into a no go area. And that isn't all. The Library of Birmingham may never be finished. The Central Library complex wasn't. There are unfinished developments a stones throw away at the ABC Centre (part of Alpha Tower complex), Holiday Street near Trident Housing Association HQ, Broad Street Tramps Disco site and of course the Five Ways Shopping Centre. The area is looking more like a 'Bob the Blunderer' builder's yard. Now is the time to stop it by writing letters of complaint to newspapers and councilors, or signing the council's e-petition on the subject (compulsory from April 2010). As the piles are now being bored into the ground adjacent to the Repertory Theatre in Centenary Square we should remember that it is not too late to stop the final act....the opening by HRH Prince Charles?

This letter was delivered to the Central Library by me just as the Library of Birmingham site was being examined by archaeologists. I finally got a detailed reply after sending a third copy to my councilor. I got a lot off my back and little else. Well the Library of Birmingham was completed, and the Central Library site is now being developed at great expense. It is a pedestrian and automotive choke point that is likely to remain that way for ten years. The new library was initially a success, with many people going there just to look at the architecture. It makes a great tourist attraction. As one enters the building you look up and wonder where the ceiling is. Unlike the old library the escalators actually work. On the upper floors you can wander out onto the terrace and view Centenary Square containing the tomb of the unknown warrior, the Repertory Theatre, International Convention Centre and Symphony Hall. Across the square is the HSBC construction site, that once included the registry office where Karen and I were married. This library contains no more storage space than the old Central Library did. I ask myself the question, what would I have done if I had been mayor.

Well I would not have built the new library. I used the Central Library often twice per week for many years. Its major flaw was that it had holes in the floor to facilitate natural ventilation. Those holes could have been filled in and heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) installed, incorporating ornate ductwork. The structure is a hollow inverted stepped pyramid made from hefty reinforced concrete, which is proving anything but easy to demolish. It is to be replaced by a couple of office blocks. It occurred to me that in order to save money the existing building could be stripped down to the concrete, and then structural silicone glazed walls and possibly mezzanine floors added. Rather like the British Airways headquarters. That would also dramatically reduce construction time. During this phase, book, CD and DVD lending could be carried out in the nearby Gas Hall.

The library project has failed because the organizers shut down the library for about a year, with no nearby alternative to go to. As a result, many of their customers switched to the internet. Now the library does not open until 11am. I went there to use the IT facilities, and was definitely not impressed. As for the music department, it is now an annulus in plan, with table tennis played in the centre. You can see it by looking down into the moon pool from the new Centenary Square, which has a shallow (10mm) pool and high downlighters. Because of the music department's odd layout it is very difficult to find things. Due to budgetary constraints little stock is being purchased. Since most of the good music albums have been stolen over the years, and because the regulars who requested the purchase of foreign hit albums now use the internet, there is now little incentive for me to visit the place. This library contains the complete works of the literary genius and playwright William Shakespeare (or was it anonymous?), who once resided at nearby Stratford Upon Avon. I wonder what he would think of it all.

Eight thousand jobs have been lost as 343 libraries have closed between 2010 and 2016, as customers have switched to more convenient similar services on the internet. The Library of Birmingham is without doubt a monument to waste, ignorance, sheer bloody-mindedness and the unaffordability of local government, in an age of potential direct control of services from central government enabled via instant telecommunications and expert systems software. Photograph the litter in the gutter with your mobile phone. Send the images to HMG, and next day it's gone.........dream on.