Thanks ever so much, Mr T, for alerting us to that. Just listened to it with my daughter (who is employed as a professional materials scientist like the speaker but is also a jewellry maker) and we were both nodding vigorously in agreement. It would be great if what he was saying really marked a turning point from our current culture based on shuffling digital paper and throwing away material items, to one with more balance.
The idea of closing libraries to make way for more practical activities is obviously being set up as a sort of shock tactic, and as such is interesting, but I fear it's just the sort of thing that councils would love to leap on as an excuse to save money. Close the libraries, but conveniently forget to do anything in their stead.
There is an interesting related strand which is quite active up here at the moment, the "mens' sheds" movement (sorry about the gender-specific title, but that's what it's called!). The idea is partly to keep retired folk like me slightly active and out of mischief, but also to allow older folk to spread their skills of actually working with materials to a younger generation. Has to be worthy of support.
