When was the last time you went to the library?

[WhiteCrow]

I thought this might be an interesting thread as the subject of libraries came up, and some people here work in them ...

I had to drop back an audio book last week of my parents to our local library, and I realised it's been an absolute age since I last used ours.

Ours is a hub of our community, if you want to find out something interesting going on nearby, esp in the school holidays, the only place you'll find it is in the library.

I've noticed though we tend to rent out less videos (we were always in there looking for newish rentals). Alas we seem to have lost our absolutely gorgeous Goth Girl librarian as well!

Anyway - on to the question, when did you last go to the library and what for?

These days I tend to use Wikipedia as a reference tool to fill in basic information. But to really learn about an area you're not familiar you still can't go wrong with a book. I've used our libraries sections of Civil War history, psychology and radar engineering (for work) a lot.

But I think the last time I used it was 6 months ago to read Thud! by Terry Pratchett.

Although this is in the book section, any library based transaction is acceptable!

[Captain Tancredi]

A long time ago- in fact it was the old library in the market place, not the brand spanking new one next to the post office, and I think I was going to do some photocopying but then found out that the machine only took 5ps. Before that, I don't think I've been a member of a public library since I lived in Canterbury, so 1996 at the latest.

[Rob McCow]

I keep going to the library! Once or twice a week. The funny thing is, I go to the library then don't go inside. I'll park up for a minute somewhere near the library and then drive off. I'm a kind of library stalker.

[Jon Masters]

Today !! - except it wasn't our branch library, it was the main one in Worthing, as I happened to be down there and also I knew they had a book I wanted to get for Sam because he's learning about the Romans at school.

(for those interested, I signed out Asterix the Gaul, Asterix and the Normans, The Lost Luggage Porter by Andrew Martin and Rubicon by Steven Saylor).

I love our library system in West Sussex - its enough to justify the council tax on its own. I like working in our local branch (great big tables for spreading out coursework), but the highlight for me is their online booking service, which means you can search the catalogue for the whole county online, reserve items from any library for delivery to your own branch and renew your books.

I've always loved pottering round too - back home I used to go to our local little branch almost every other day during the holidays, just to poke about and read and take things out just for overnight. I was delighted when I got to Edinburgh for Uni to find such glorious libraries there too (many a rainy day spent in Central library on George IVth Bridge, as in Ian Rankin's book)

I try to encourage the boys to use it as much as possible as well, so we tend to have a trip every other week (they seem to have inherited our love of reading genes too)

[SiHart]

I seem to be in the library every day, funnily enough. Odd that!

Even when I was wasn't a librarian (or a humble library assistant) I was a library customer, simply because I'd never be able to afford to buy all the books I want to read! And I'd need a library at home if I did.

Anyway, despite my bias, I think libraries are wonderful things, and it makes me very sad that every year their usage as a whole over the country goes down. As a public resource there's few things better. OK, so not every library is able to afford to buy in everything a customer might want, but we give it a good try, and even if it's not in your local branch there's always inter-library loans available to get it from somewhere- we even order items from the British Library for our customers if something really obscure (there's a small charge, but it's easier and cheaper than going to the BL itself), so it's not as if we don't try.

I think they're a valuable resource, that all too often are left to drift, starved of funds (because it's all too easy for a council to take money away from a service that doesn't really make any money for them) and to underperform. There's so much that we can offer to the community, that due to cutbacks and stuff we can't do.

In my small branches (and they are two of the smallest in the borough) we offer storytimes for pre-school kids, homework clubs for older kids, activity sessions in school holidays, a reading group for adults, we even open late one nigth a week so that the local youth club can use the facilities. This is as well as the DVDs, storytapes and CDs, free internet access (including many subscription sites for free) and the chance to borrow books for free... I just don't understand why people feel they don't want to use them. I try to make my branches friendly, welcoming and part of the community and it seems to be working, but turning things round and getting people in is an uphill struggle.

Si xx

[WhiteCrow]

I keep going to the library! Once or twice a week. The funny thing is, I go to the library then don't go inside. I'll park up for a minute somewhere near the library and then drive off. I'm a kind of library stalker.

It's almost like Si doesn't want to drive. Doesn't he realise that until he's got his license they'll never let him drive the Library Bus?

By the way, some very passionate words there Si. I think for me it used to be "if you want to find out something go to the library", but now Wikipedia is more my first port of call.

Our library is great, probably the best thing about Farnborough. We used to pop in usually once a week at least to snoop around. But I'm out of the habbit even though I cycle right by daily.

[Pip Madeley]

I'm in one now. You all know my feelings about libraries i.e. they RULE.

[SiHart]

We don't have a library bus- they closed that down a couple of years ago.

If you don't use them, they'll shut them down. It's happening across the country and people only realise what they've lost when it's no longer there. I am not going to let that happen to my libraries- I know how valuable they are to the community, but councils look at dwindling usage figures, the cost to keep them open and close down small libraries. They keep a core open because they have to, but you know, it might last forever. I think we're in danger of losing something wonderful though.
Yes, there has to progress and libraries have not adapted to the changes that greater use of the internet has brought- but we're trying desperately to change that. I asked recently about using Facebook as marketing tool for our libraries and users, but no-one took it seriously. I think there are so many oppotunities that aren't taken that mean we get left behind. It just tales forever to get anything changed.

So if you feel your library is behind the times, doesn't offer what you want or whatever, let the library bosses know. You're paying for them! Let them know what you'd like to see! Don't let them be lost!

This was a broadcast from Shhh! The Public Library Preservation Society!

Si xx

[Paul Monk]

I love libraries.
Last time I was there was last saturday. The children love it too. They love looking at the dvds and sitting down reading the books. We used to take them to rhyme time as well when they were little and they loved that.
I tend to use the online catalogue and reservation system most nowadays but thats brilliant too.

[Llordllama]

Like Sim Hart - I seem to be in the library most days (aside from the days I'm not working). Erm but then they do pay me to be here to educate/support the students and staff.

When was the last time I was in a library for reasons other than work...erm, 6 months ago I think to raid the local village library's stock of graphic novels.

[MacNimon]

It must be about 15 years since I was in a library. I've got such a backlog of my own stuff to catch up on that I can't think of any reason to visit one...

[Captain Tancredi]

To be fair to the library in Otley, they do have a good range of books, CDs and I think DVDs, and when they moved to opposite the bus station, they changed their opening hours so they open until 7 most nights. This is particularly sensible when there's a fairly big commuter market with 45 minutes each way every day into Leeds.

The trouble is, I tend to plan out what I read several books in advance and I've been hoarding the things for about 18 years now, so the majority of the time I not only know what I want to read but I've already got it. I haven't bought a book for myself this year, and I think I could comfortably make it until at least August before I needed to- and then I tend to buy books I know I'll want to keep.

[WhiteCrow]

I used to remember the library was a great place to try and hit on girls as a teenager - they just might be as geeky as me you see if they were in a library!

[Zbigniev Hamson]

About a year ago to get an old book about the history of chess (which I read about 3% of, I'll get it out again sometime when I have 3 months to kill and nothing else to do). Or about 4 months ago to use the toilet. Whichever you think counts.

[Rob McCow]

I used to go to the public library in Guildford quite a lot when I was at Uni. Money was tight, so it was great to be able to take out books for free and videos for a cheap price. My housemates and me watched a lot of The Avengers on VHS borrowed from the library.

Part of the pleasure of going to the library was not only to take out books, but also to look at all the interesting books that you could read - or books so awful that you'd never read them!

[Si Hunt]

About 1983! Apart from our University Campus library sometimes, although I used to find it very difficult to study in there as it was so deafeningly silent! The sort of silence that just burns! Do you know what I mean?

We used to toddle down to Clacton library (which is still there as it always was) and take out books every week. Perhaps tellingly, I only used to take out either the Doctor Who books or the Tintin books. Every time I used to search for new ones I hadn't read, those elusive ones that I could see on the back cover of their existing books; it never occured to me that the library might not actually stock all the Tintin books!

The library isn't for me these days, as I'm not a habitual reader. Any books I get I'll want to keep so I buy them. But libraries are good for students, and also for introducing kids to reading. They're also memorably eerie, as you slip between the isles of endless books in the silence. There really ought to have been a "Sapphire & Steel" play set in a library.

I also used to like the way they stamped the front of the book, because you could see how many people had read each book when you took it out. I wonder if they still do that now? I expect technology has taken over and it's all stored on computer.

Oh, and we briefly used a Library Van when I lived in my old house in Bockings Grove, that was fun.

Si.

[SiHart]

We still stamp books, Si, don't worry! How would people know when to bring them back otherwise?

Si xx

[WhiteCrow]

Libraries are also about experimental reading too. There are things I've read from the library I would never think of buying on the off chance I'd enjoy.

The greatest book I had was the Autobiography of Martin Luthor King, and I read it first from the library. I had to keep extending it because it was such a difficult book to read - not from a reading perspective but because it's such a powerfully emotional book. I now own my own copy not surprisingly. But I doubt I'd have taken the gamble with my own money first time.

[Pip Madeley]

Big news in Manchester Libraries - they're going to let under 18's take out DVDs. Personally I think it's a very foolish idea, I shudder at the amount of scratched/stolen discs...

[Llordllama]

You still stamp books Sim? Woah, how 19thC of you Everywhere I've worked prints recepits - but I guess Joe Public is more likely to lose them that Johnny Student...

[WhiteCrow]

I have to just quote one of my favourite lines from my brothers gangsta rap collection was "the library, where they bury the lies" ...

I think the rest of the song talked about pimpin' ho's and gunnin' down mo-fo's ...

[Si Hunt]

At the risk of putting two of my dearest friends out of work, I'm amazed that nobody has yet developed a "computer book" that contains a monitor on the left and right page, to which you can simply download a different book each week. You could touch the edge of the screen to advance the two pages that are currently being displayed.

Si.

[SiHart]

I think, knowing the public who use libraries, that there would be a great deal of resistance to that Si. I don't think people find reading from screens as relaxing as reading the print from a page of a book. Just one of those things. It's a good idea in principle but downloading books just isn't going to take off as fast as downloading other media. I think books will be around for a long, long time to come.
Lets face it, you don't need to do anything other than pick up a book. If you had an electronic book you have to make sure it's charged, you have to change the download every so often... it's just not as convienent.

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

I don't think the recharging would be that bigger deal, but I think you have a point with the staring at the screen thing - but imagine if they could make a lightweight monitor that was almost as easy to look at as the written page. It'd be great! Apart from damaging the poor libraries and bookshops trade that is.

Out of interest, do you get many people still use the reference section of your library Si? I wonder how much that has been hit by the rise of Wikipedia and the like.

Si.

[WhiteCrow]

I've got Human Nature on a PDA - and to be honest it's not fun to read, text is far too small. It's a good idea but in practise doesn't work.

Plus people have more of an emotional attatchment to books as well - I love the smell of old books.