GILES Gordon's threnody (December 12) awakened memories and passions in me that I had come to think were long dead. Having spent my working life in public and college libraries I thought that, after nine years' retirement, I had reached a suitable state of detachment concerning their sad fate. Librarians may largely have themselves to blame but the main burden of responsibility must surely rest with local and national politicians not all of whom are wild enthusiasts for that most basic of freedoms: access to information and knowledge.

In the 1950s and 60s librarians chose four false roads to go down: book-loan statistics as the main indicators of library testosterone levels, managerial rather than bibliographical qualifications as the main route to advancement, a distaste for subject specialist posts, and, along with many other para-professions, engagement

in the general hyperinflation of academic qualifications.

The booksellers are taking back territory that is rightfully theirs, as Giles Gordon implies, but public libraries are not making a good case for playing down the provision of light entertainment and providing that for which they are most needed: support for all educational and cultural activities, unique local repositories and information services, and an informed and skilled interface between the punter and the information explosion, whether audio, visual, digital, or bound in pink buckram.

Good libraries are trying to do these things already but they are fewer and doing worse than the profession would like to think.

Good librarians are still to be found but I suspect that their average age is greater than formerly and that they lurk among the lower branches of the managerial tree. Perhaps someone should compile a Library Lover's Directory of Excellent Librarians and Library Assistants.

In the meantime there is the pleasure of finding routes to informational satisfaction through an increasingly uncertain jumble of provision standards and of speculating why, in my own neck of the woods, our most excellent Chief Librarian should resign in mid-career and go to work for Borders.

Geo. S Neil Mochrie,

16 Heugh Street, Falkirk.

December 13.

GILES Gordon's call (December 12) for ''a distinguished and fertile public library service'' will be supported by librarians and library users. However, he does his case little service by some of the assertions he makes in his article. To say that the advent of Public Lending Right has stopped librarians recommending particular books is ludicrous. The very successful ''Now Read On'' scheme organised by the Scottish Library Association and the Scottish Arts Council recommended and actively promoted a wide range of authors and titles to the public.

The recent #500,000 lottery award to the Scottish Library Association to provide copies of the work of Scottish authors is designed to promote Scottish writing in schools.

Libraries are facing financial difficulties and book expenditure in some services has been badly hit, but to say that librarians see ''libraries as a business'' does not bear scrutiny. The total income generated by libraries is less than 3% of total expenditure.

It also has to be said that the present Government is breathing new life into public libraries by placing them at the centre of its efforts to promote both new technology and education. The Government is also providing funding for training, the development of digital services, and the improvement of the existing IT infrastructure.

The future of public libraries is bright, but they are changing, and a good thing too. For libraries to stand aside from developments such as the Internet and CD Roms would indeed be a ''head in the sand'' policy, and would benefit neither libraries nor the people who use them.

Robert Craig,

Director, Scottish Library and

Information Council,

1 John Street, Hamilton.

December 13.