As I suppose you all know by now, the British Council has decided to close its public library in Mauritius. This decision, which, as far as I can tell, is based on economical reasons, is very debatable as this will prevent people who like to read to have access to English books.
I have very fond memories of the British Council library. I was a subscriber when I was a kid then again when I came back to Mauritius in 1998. I remained a subscriber until two years ago when I decided to stop subscribing for two main reasons:
The library, which was originally a real library with real books and a very studious atmosphere, became a médiathèque with Web-enabled PCs, LCD TVs showing English movies, etc. From total silence, the place became noisy… But, more problematic, someone there decided that most books should be kept somewhere hidden and only retrieved when asked for. This made stumbling by accident on a book more or less impossible.
See, I became a Computer Scientist in large part because, at the British Council library, I stumbled by accident on one book when I was a kid. That book was the formidable Programming Pearls by Jon Bentley:
I read that book when I was 14-15 and fell in love. I discovered that very special type of literature called computer programming. From there I read books on algorithms, data structures, computer architecture, etc, all of them obtained at the British Council library. I can’t imagine what my education would have been without them…
A second reason why I stopped subscribing was that I felt that the subscription fee was becoming too high. I think it was around Rs 1000 per year which is waaaaaaay above what a normal Mauritian can pay. For the record, other libraries in Mauritius, and especially Charles Baudelaire library (which is the French alter-ego of the British Council library) charge substantially less per year.
If I were cynical, I would say that this was a deliberate decision by the British Council to have fewer and fewer subscribers until closing down would become the only viable thing to do.
But I prefer not to be cynical (once), this is just a result of very bad judgement.
I used to be a member too some 15 years ago. The calmness there allowed me to concentrate fully on my reading and this was what I was looking for. But from what I can remember the staff there were not very helpful and pleasant to talk to.
They were ok enough I would say :-)
15 years ago, the library was a tranquil place where one could really educate himself/herself. Now it’s a bloody mediathèque with noise everywhere. I can’t understand how this modern decision was taken!
Another (expensive) library which bites the dust!
I had 2 stints as a BC subscriber: 1994-2000 and then 2004-2006.
Reasons why I left:
1. Overpriced subscription for students & adults alike.
2. Overabundant British books – want a book about New Labour? No problem, you’ll have dozens out there. Where’s the so called ‘variety’?
2. Lack of computing literature. Yeah… same old Dbase & VB books.
3. Crappy and ‘racist’ service (don’t get me wrong here… maybe you experienced it too)
4. It became a bazaar in the 21st century, as you rightly pointed out.
5. It fell victim to the slow death of English in this country. Alas… but they’ve got themselves to blame for it – in part.
6. Exorbitant late return penalties – I leave this to you :-)
This is incredibly sad news. I used to be a subscriber throughout my college days. Apart from the fact that it enabled me to travel to Rose Hill after school (I studied in Curepipe) to roam around (I think it’s called ‘chake’ in Creole!) as college students do, it gave me access to a wide range of books and resources. The membership fee was quite high, but they had books I couldn’t find anywhere else. It was also the only predominantly english library, with books beyond the Famous Fives, Mills&Boons and Christopher Pikes!
It is true it became something resembling a marketplace later, but I used to love to read the foreign papers there. Obviously, the sports pages were huge favourites, but it was like my doorway to the outside world!
I am guessing the British Council will still be active in Mauritius. They used to do very informative sessions on further studies in the UK.
I went to BC today and had to convince the guy to let me buy 4 books instead of 3 per member. I bought
1. Bitter Java
2. Database Design using Entity Relationship Diagrams
3. Successful IT project delivery
4. Group Policy, profiles and Intellimirror for Windows 2003, XP and 2000
and
5. Tommy DVD by The Who.
All of this for Rs 200. plus got a refund of Rs 400 out of my remaining subscription.
I wish I went there earlier during the week :-)
I was a member of BC since the 80’s and indeed they ruined it when they introduced the PC’s. Yes it is sad for an IT person to say that but as everybody is saying it became a bazaar where kids would play games on miniclip.com and the silence that I treasured every saturday just went away. I event wrote a comment about that in their visitor’s book but I guess nobody read it.
So, as at today you don’t have a decent, silent place to sit down and read in Rose Hill. I know there’s the municipal library but I’ve never been there and I’m sure it is a place where kids go to “frequenter”.
It again shows how the French do everything to promote their language and culture around the world while the british take English for granted. I won’t even comment watching MI-5 in French that would be off topic.
I am very very sad :-(.
Well said, Raj…