Why aren't the remaining public libraries used more?

[rzb]

I love our local library.

It's not lovely - it could do with a bit of fresh paint, new carpets and so on.

But:

• It's warm in winter, dry during rain, and cool(ish) when it's stinky hot outside.
• It always has seats (even comfy ones), and doesn't require an expensive coffee to be purchased in order to use them.
• The children's section has an open area with space for young kids to toddle and crawl around safely.
• Their adult and baby / toddler rhyme and story sessions are a great place to get some adult conversation / solidarity with other parents of babies/toddlers.
• It's conveniently located within our local shopping area, so exchanging library books fits in with regular errands and becomes an easy habit to maintain.
• It has amazingly helpful, knowledgeable and approachable librarians who discreetly ensure that kids who come in alone are safe, and who are a super source of suggestions for different books to try.
• In a place that doesn't have a bookshop, it's the only local provider of the 'book browsing' experience which is available to everyone (yes, schools have their own libraries so kids aren't denied this, but books deemed to be age-appropriate aren't always accessible or of interest).
• Its online services and app are simple enough to use that my kids could manage their own accounts online from around the age of 8.
• It has offered my kids a sense of accomplishment and independence when they were old enough to research and reserve the books they wanted to read and visit the library independently to exchange books.
• My kids have read lots of books, and genres of books, that they wouldn't otherwise have picked up, enabled because there's no cost to picking up and trying a book from the library, and they can browse for as long as they like (within the library's opening hours).

It's brilliant, and I love having and using our local library, but it seems that lots of local parents and their families don't use it. If books / reading come up in conversation with other parents, e.g. at my kids' activities, and I mention that my kids use the library a lot, it gets a response along the lines of, 'That's a good idea, but my kids don't have library cards' or 'We don't use the library, which is a bit silly really when we're buying all these books,', or 'I hadn't thought of taking them to the library.'

I know I'm lucky to have access to a local library, and perhaps now in a minority of people who have easy access to one. If you have a local library, do you and your family use it? Why/why not? Is it well-used by other families? If you don't have a local library, would you use one if you did?

We have a small local library which is open at fairly odd times. I used it a lot when I was a SAHM, but fell out of the habit when I returned to work. This year I have used it absolutely loads - mainly to order in books that I want to read. DS has started to use it again too.

I absolutely lived in libraries as a little kid. I got through about five books a week and my parents couldn't afford to buy that amount of books. I ended up studying English at Oxford, and I don't think that would have been the case without libraries. It makes me really sad to think of the 21st century kids like me, who do not have access to a library.

Nearest library: a few shelves staffed by volunteers in a community hub, 10mins cycle away. Not open any time that's useful for people who work, and books are Mills and Boon.

Next closest library: 20min cycle or drive away. Opening hours are useless.

Preferred library: next to one of my kid's extra-curricular activities, where we routinely spend 2hrs waiting. It is of course not open on the afternoons that the activity runs.

Yes, we did the Rhyme Time sessions - they were good! Again though they only happened twice a week and it was packed. I think they are trying to double up as Sure Start which is maybe where they could focus on for investment? Although if Labour get in hopefully we can get Sure Start back...

@commonground I'm pretty sure a high proportion of those who regularly use my local library are people who may have fewer other options for reading material, internet access, warm spaces, etc. My question isn't so much 'why aren't libraries being used?' but 'why aren't they used more heavily?', and I suppose also with a 'why doesn't the user base have a more proportional demographic?' I'd hate to see my local library close, partly for for selfish reasons but more keenly because of the loss of that wider, essential local service provision.

I love libraries and I love books. I even worked in a library for a period.

But I'm not well and can't easily get out. I read heaps though, either from book exchange groups or books I already have in the house or I am given and the children have shelves and shelves of books too

I would love to be well enough to get to the library

It makes me really sad to think of the 21st century kids like me, who do not have access to a library.
I know what you are saying (as another child who haunted the library) but that was then and this is now. I have a lot of books for my DGC: some that I saved from when their parent was a child and some that I have picked up free/cheaply from phone-box libraries, supermarket libraries, charity shops, etc due to people decluttering.

Because these hours are neither use nor ornament to a lot of people. Ours doesn't even open at a weekend.

I feel passionately about this too. I know how important libraries are. My ancestors founded some of the first public libraries in England. But the reality as someone else has pointed out is that often opening hours now are such that libraries are effectively closed to people who work mon-fri

Doesn't your library run a home delivery service?

I want to use it, because libraries were hugely important to me growing up (as they were to my parents before me), but I don't because the book selection for both kids and adults is absolutely crap. It's that simple. Plus the libraries round here are more concerned with pushing whatever ideology happens to be fashionable this month than in choosing good stories. So I buy books instead. My kids are very lucky that we have the money and capacity to do this. It's shit for kids whose families don't have the ability to do the same.

I think they miss a trick not doing social events in the evenings there. I know it is staffing problems that probably stops it, but there's a whole no drinking movement where sitting with a book with others is a thing - you could do book clubs too.

I do think people who work are really more likely to be people who use the services, so closing them when these people could possibly get a chance to use them isn't helpful.

We do sometimes but either local library is a drive and for the one that has most of the books DSs might want you have to pay to park. I could probably buy said books for the cost of parking…

No, I think they stopped this some time ago in our area

My closest is a traditional public library built in 18-something. But it's now in the wrong place. It's on a busy road slightly out of the main shopping area, with poor public transport, limited accessibility, and very poor parking. Most people in town will drive past it daily, but very few use it. It's a satellite library for the larger county library, so whilst you can request books from a large catalogue the range available on the shelf is broad but shallow. Modern computer access etc. has been shoe-horned into the original Victorian layout.

There's a plan to move the library to an empty unit in the main shopping area close to the bust station as part of a larger scheme to create an information access point for the community. But attachment to the old building (that very few people use) is creating issues until a use (that won't just be a subsidy cash sink) for the old building can be identified and agreed. Most of the objections are coming from out-of-area, people with historic attachment to the town that no longer live there.

I live near a really well used library in Hexham. The reasons why I think it's so busy are because:
It's right in the centre of town in a beautiful Victorian building that's nice to be in.
It shares the building with the local theatre.
They have loads of activities on for kids during the holidays.
It's close to local schools.
It has a community jigsaw puzzle in the centre of the room that anyone can add to.
It's opposite the park - so if it suddenly starts to rain - we can easily decamp to the library. Basically location and opening hours are key.
Where I've lived before here - the library wasn't in a convenient location (on a ugly ring road) so you'd have to drive to it. It was hardly open. They only had one club (Saturday Lego club) which was heaving with kids as we were living in a really busy city.

I take the kids occasionally, but not very often. I don't personally read very much these days. It's only open half the week, and the selection of books for kids of reading age is abysmal. We go to charity shops and buy books instead.

I'm an online member of my library & use Libby & BorrowBox for ebooks & audio books! It's amazing! All free!

I don't use my local library any more. We live on the border with Hackney, and I use their bog standard old fashioned libraries instead.

The small one near me (Waltham Forest) was closed down years ago, and the big one is well used but not as a library. It has lots of desks and WiFi, a parking permit service, a registry, a cafe, a toilet and a children's area. There is a a modest selection of books, and you are expected to check them in and out yourself which is fine except that if you reserve a book you need a member of staff to fetch it for you, and in order to do that you need to queue up behind everyone in Waltham Forest who wants a parking permit, because there are no library-only staff.

Basically it is a useful municipal building but nobody is there for the books because it is barely a library.

We used to use ours a lot but two main reasons for stopping are..

1/ not open on Sundays which is pretty much our only day

2/ car parking fees have increased hugely meaning that going to our local town centre is now so expensive it's better to go to the out of town shopping centre for all our shopping now.

Open library sounds like a fab idea, unfortunately in my area I'm almost certain people would just trash everything or take the piss.

I looked forward to taking my son to the library when he was a baby. Then as he got to an age where he could enjoy it they shut for Covid. We built up a library of books at home and found other things to do. When things started reopening we went for different experiences because we had books at home.

We still use the library but he’s at school now and I find it difficult to return books before they close on a Saturday. My childhood library had a return box that opened up to the outside and I wish our building had that. We would genuinely use the library more if it did.

Ours is too noisy with noisy hobby groups dominating the space (and they don’t generate revenue) and poorly laid out for anyone with disabilities/ illness.

I think libraries should be required to offer some quiet space for people to read, research, think etc particularly as many people don’t have quiet and safe space at home.

You have actually just reminded me I meant to cancel my Audiobooks subscription and look into this - thank you!

Ours is small and nice but the sad fact is that I am usually at work when it’s open.

I don’t work Monday’s so we sometimes go then but we usually visit my parents on Monday’s (1.5 hrs away). From September DD will be at school so it won’t even be an option on Monday’s apart from school hols.

Ours opens for a few hours on Saturday but I’m with the horse then.

We do have the post box for returns though.

I take DC to ours all the time. We constantly have books out. It's open to 7pm and open both Saturday AND Sunday. In fact I take DC1 to the Sunday chess club so he can have more challenging games than the ones he gets from school chess club. We also go to their special events sometimes.