In its broadest sense, the Toilet Circuit comprises smaller and independent music venues in the UK that launched many now famous artists and bands, alongside supporting many that are locally known, igniting or sustaining all-important local music scenes and their cultural production. Fuelled by alcohol, drugs and adrenalin, the turbulent atmosphere of Toilet Circuit venues offer escapism for disaffected youth within the seedy aesthetic environment evocative of a recalcitrant culture. These raucous grime-pits play a vital role in the ecology of Britain's music scene and broader cultural sector. Against a backdrop of closures, this paper seeks to explore the significance of these venues and their future , using three iconic examples in London, Leeds and Kent. INTRODUCTION: MUSIC, HERITAGE AND THE CITY 'We are being robbed of our cultural heritage.' Headline of a Time Out magazine blogpost documenting the closure of legendary Soho (London, UK) club and music venue 'Madam JoJos', November 2014. The musical heritage of Britain exists in a myriad of forms, claiming, 'a dominant role in voicing an essential national identity, history and experience' (Morra 2013, 11). Yet contemporary live music performance spaces appear to be undervalued (see Haslam 2015 for an overview) despite live music being integral to identity, lifestyle and culture and to a UK live music industry worth £789 million (UK Music, 2014). These venues are also under threat. A report by the Music Venue Trust (MVT 2015) has revealed independent music venues operating under significant pressures, financial and regulatory, closing down at a substantial rate. Against this background, and using three case studies comprising representative examples of venues on the so-called 'Toilet Circuit', this paper will explore the contested heritage of these venues and their role in the constructions of place, history and identity (Roberts and Cohen 2015, 233). Popular music, its production, marketing and distribution, is largely closely aligned to a drive for nostalgia. For example, 'classic albums' (Baade and Aitken 2008; Weinstein 1998) and music magazines such as Mojo and Classic Rock have sought to establish and reconstruct an 'authentic' musical heritage (Whiteley 2005). Recent years have seen a rise in reunion tours, 'heritage acts' playing classic albums in full (Reinartz 2010) and tribute acts seeking to reconstruct the authentic. Music's commercialistic nostalgia (Chaney 2002; Grainge 2000, 27; Williams 1965) has woven personal memories and identities with consumable music developing a retrospective cultural consecration (Allen and Lincoln 2004; Schmutz 2005). Thus music is ingrained, perhaps unhealthily, with connotations of time and place creating a kind of authorised (and arguably sanitized) heritage of popular music. More healthily perhaps, within contemporary music, many artists incorporate a hybridity of musical sources, evoking the heritage that they represent. Tim Jonze (2006) in the leading music magazine NME described Arctic Monkey's debut album as: ...

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Abstract:To achieve operational efficiency and a high level of productivity, technical services departments in libraries have often sought technology-based services provided by vendors. Vendors are able to provide significant savings, personnel support, and expertise to the library that needs to devote its own capital (personnel, equipment, funding, etc.) to new initiatives. Developing a strong, positive working relationship between libraries and vendors will not only result in resource savings and expand profits, but also create a sense of teamwork and trust. In this article, authors present their practice in using the technology dividend generated through the beneficial investment in a partnership to provide enhanced services to library users while maintaining adequate vendor profitability. Article: IntroductionLibraries of all types and sizes in the United States have experienced unprecedented rates of change brought forth by technology since the early 1980s. Technical services departments in these libraries have been leaders in introducing and adapting technological advances since then and they continue to lead new endeavors in academic libraries today. Such technologies as the online catalog, the ILS, the use of EDI (electronic data interchange), and the application of metadata protocols to organize networked resources are a few examples. To achieve operational efficiency and a high level of productivity, technical services departments have also sought technology-based services provided by vendors. Formulating collaborations/partnerships between vendors and libraries could not come at a more opportune time. Vendors are able to provide significant savings, personnel support, and expertise to the library that needs to devote its own capital (personnel, equipment, funding, etc.) to new initiatives. Developing a strong, positive working relationship between libraries and vendors will not only result in resource savings and expand profits, but also create a sense of teamwork and trust. In this article, three authors, a head of technical services and an acquisitions manager at an university library, and an electronic services consultant of a book vendor, present their practice in using the technology dividend generated through the beneficial investment in a partnership to provide enhanced services to library users while maintaining adequate vendor profitability. Literature reviewLibraries have had a long relationship with their materials vendors who supply a variety of library functions. Libraries use vendor expertise, facilities, databases, and multiple staff contacts to accomplish technical services tasks. Physical processing of books (shelf-ready materials) is one such example. Slowly and steadily, partnerships with vendors have gained positive recognition among libraries in the country. Shirk describes such interdependent relationships:Few librarians today question the important role of the book jobber in their acquisitions strategies. In fact that role is gaining in importance as the book vendor assumes a ...