Usherwood, B: Equity and excellence in the public library: why ignorance is not our heritage.

• Author: Smith, Kerry
• Position: Book review

Usherwood, B Equity and excellence in the public library: why ignorance is not our heritage Aldershot UK, Ashgate 2007 45.00 [pounds sterling] www.ashgate.com

Emeritus Professor Bob Usherwood is known to many public librarians for his long commitment to researching the public library. That he should celebrate his recent retirement with this title is testimony to the some 30 years he spent on this commitment as an academic and researcher at the University of Sheffield, and to his earlier years as a public librarian.

In the preface to the book, Usherwood admits that 'the text is more polemical than I had planned. The tone is a result of a sense of frustration.' As a library educator, although slightly younger than Usherwood, I can identify with his feelings. But as I read these words, I also thought--is this the price of being older and towards the end, rather than at the beginning, of one's career in the library profession?

Usherwood has a deep and abiding commitment to being inspired and inspiring, to the provision of a democratic rather than a populist public library service, and to the role of the public library to serve the disadvantaged. A recurring theme in the book is his belief that the public library should be counteracting ignorance and prejudice in society. Was it, then, just a coincidence that, as I read this book, I also read the article by Paul Comrie Thomson in the Weekend Australian 9-10 February 2008 On low blows to high art, where he asked 'How do you think the Sydney Symphony Orchestra went backing Burt Bacharach and Glen Campbell? ... are [Bacharach and...