Blah Blah Flowers

Whitechapel Idea Store
Originally uploaded by Loz Flowers.

Ground Floor, Whitechapel Idea Store
Originally uploaded by Loz Flowers.

Whitechapel Idea Store
Originally uploaded by Loz Flowers.

I went to the Whitechapel Idea Store today. By not referring to it as a library Tower Hamlet's don't need to put such a tiresome emphasis on books and can instead have all the cool things like DVDs and computers instead. I bumped into a former colleague of mine who now works in the Whitechapel I.S. it turns out that it's partly privately funded, my knowledge of legislation is poor but I've got a vague idea that a public library can't be called a public library if it's not entirely publicly funded, but I could well be wrong. I have to say though that 'idea store' really sucks as a name. I can understand them wanting to get away from the image of a staid library and what it represents but 'idea store' smells of desperation and New Labour management-speak. It also sounds suspiciously consumerist, which is not what a library should be.

It certainly looks nice, if rather books-free. A four-storey building, what I found most interesting was that the fiction, the most popular part of a library, was on the top floor. My Deep Throat told me this was to encourage people to go through the rest of the Idea Store to get to them, but as the stairs and elevators are in the centre of the building and enclosed, you don't get to see the rest of the li- Idea Store as you go up to the top which rather spoils the effect. The bendy shelving, which you can see in the third picture, I think is great. It wouldn't work in every environment but it does do so here.

With the exception of the desks on the ground floor and reference floor the library does seem to be light staff-wise, what staff I saw were mobile and dealing with customer enquiries by going to computers hidden in cupboards and behind concealed panels. If you consider that our library has three enquiry points over two floors and has several rooms without any staff presence at all but has five or six members of staff visible at any one time, Whitechapel seemed to be managing on what looked like one member of staff per level, with a couple more in the childrens area and the ground floor welcome desk.

I'd not been to whatever was there before and I haven't bothered to try investigating Tower Hamlets finances, so I don't know whether my perception of a library that was light on books is accurate or how it compares historically. Certainly, although the library was fairly busy, I didn't see anyone browsing any of their books when I visited, late on a wednesday morning. I'm not sure running a library service as a concealed add-on to an internet cafe is the way to go but with councils wanting to increase their Council Tax more than the Government is willing to let them this kind of PPP may be what our futures look like.