to think that we NEED libraries? This is horrific.

[StuckInTheMiddleWithYou]

Would MN like to run a campaign on this?

www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/terence-blacker/terence-blacker-hands-off-our-public-libraries-2057131.html

Very few public libraries have qualified librarians working in them, certainly not doing day to day desk work. Those cuts were made years ago. Most public libraries are staffed by library assistants - and more power to them, but they're not librarians and they don't need a qualification.

You might have a youth librarian but they'll work across many libraries, or a team of stock selection librarians but they'll work in a central location.

If you see a job advertised as looking for a "librarian" then you'll most likely need a library qualification and you'll most likely not be working in a public library.

Our local authority public libraries are very stringent about library qualifications - you need a degree or postgraduate qualification, plus have, or be working towards, chartered status of the professional body CILIP. Very few actual librarians working for the LA though.

what Butterpie said

I home ed and we're in the library at least once monthly. We'd be stuffed without it. Dcs choose their own Information Books- last haul included a Lives of The Saints and Horses - books I'd never consider buying...

Free accessible libraries are the mark of a civilised society. As someone said upthread- we pay taxes and council taxes for services. Fuck having me council tax frozen- I want nurseries; I want libraries; I want community centres; I want pensioner's day centres; I want city farms (reels off huge list)

mn campaign pleeeeeeease

"Can every single person on this thread tell me when was the last time they set foot in a library?

I take my two DDs each week to a baby & toddler session at the central town library, every fortnight or so we all also go to our smaller local library to borrow books. My DH goes to the central library every week on one of his lunch breaks and most Saturdays he also takes DD1.

I feel sick at the thought of them being taken over... and by supermarkets ??? I mean WTF???

This HAS to be a mumsnet campaign.

Don't know if others have seen it but there is also this thread about this in the MN campaigns section.

I work for Libraries in Suffolk (library assistant but not actually in a library) and I am in line to lose my job by April 2012 because of the changes, libraries here are going to be run by voluntary groups in the community as I understand it, I think they will be run on the cheap or voluntarily by people who aren't qualified and as a result quality will go down drastically. I am proud to be part of a wonderful service in Suffolk and I think it's incredibly sad.

Yes, we need libraries. They are brill.

The government's shameful decision to cut 25% across (nearly) all departments is causing such destruction it's enough to make you weep.

Our library has recently reduced its opening hours. I'm pretty sure staff have gone or are going too.

I am a librarian (with a degree in English Lit, an MA in Library & Information Studies and a business degree) - and I work with several other similarly qualified colleagues in a library in a large arts organisation.

The qualifications matter because you wouldn't get the service you do without properly trained people being there in the background managing it all.

I wanted to work in a library because, like many of the rest of you, I think they are wonderful. Books - for free - and if the library doesn't have what you need it will order it for you. And no-one is judging you or telling you what to read. You can educate yourself and your children in the truest sense of the word.

I really hope people defend the UK's library service. It will be a poorer place without it.

Ours is currently being refurbished and and IIRC will be turned into a discovery centre, whatever that is.

We only get to go about once a month TBH but the dc's nursery take the children every so often as well.

Ours is always busy.

@ discovery centre

Our library is the hub of our little high street, it is a wonderful place to chill. Has 5 computers free to use, can reserve books for free, helpful staff, great childrens area. New books coming in all the time, saves us a lot of money. It would be a shame to see them privatised, I don't think people would bother with them then. Use your library before it's too late.

pointy this is what they say on the website..

The Discovery Centre will be packed full of new features: business and learning suite, Wifi, 50 seat community room, accessible lift, personal changing suite, self-service technology, refreshment point, museum display, fresh new look with comfy seating, public toilet and baby changing facilities, Information Centre and much more

doesn't seem to mention books though

oh meglet, how depressing

USE IT OR LOSE IT!

Our local library is closing - it's SO sad. We are a fairly deprived bit of London and it means that for a huge swathe of the local population, the nearest library is now a half hour bus ride away.

It really breaks my heart - the library is fantastically used, lot of local children doing homework in there, children's book clubs and story time, people using the internet who don't have access at home.

But it's in a beautiful Victorian building and apparently it's going to be sold for housing.

I felt like crying when I heard.

discovery centre as well as library, ok, but not in place of a library. It's not the same thing at all

Usually we go to a library every week. My dd definitely reads hundreds of library books every year. Hundreds. I buy her books if I feel they have re-readable value or because I just feel like it and I do buy loads but I wouldn't buy hundreds of books every year that she would only read once.

pointy .... they have a blog on the library revamp and new books have been ordered so there's hope for it yet. TBH if they have a spanking new baby change area and nice seats that will get us in there when it re-opens.

btw baffled by the assertion further down on the thread that people are not using libraries.

I go at least twice a week with the children and so do most of my friends. DS1 got his first library card at 5 days old

MrsP, I went last Wednesday, and will be going next on Monday.

NOoooooo they can't take our library. MY dc love books and reading as do I, we visit once a week! I could never afford to buy dd a different book for every nights bedtime story. Or all the lovely books ds likes to resad, the books for his home work etc etc

I was at 2 local libraries and was frankly disappointed at the choice of titles - just popular stuff. Reference section, if you can call it that, was hardly a 'collection' at all, just a random selection of frequently out-of-date books.

I'd be flabbergasted if there was a qualified librarian actually in charge of selecting those books.

I don't think I would miss those libraries, which were quite thinly used, but admittedly I was there in the middle of a weekday.

I would much prefer closing down a few of these little libraries and then having a large library housed over a few levels with proper access in terms of public transport and parking, for people to get to. When I was growing up (not UK), that was the sort of library we had and I was there every week. I don't see the point in going to what looked to me like a second hand bookshop.

blueshoes I think ideally you want both - a properly staffed reference library in a central location is a social necessity.

But it doesn't replace the local lending library giving free access to books to pensioners, children and the unemployed. They should have access to popular books as well as more worthy stuff.

And they are precisely the kind of user who would be unable to negotiate a long journey on public transport.

For many pensioners 4 weekly novels are a lifeline - there's no way they could afford to pay for that out of their pension, and second hand bookshops aren't a substitute. You can't order or reserve a book from a second hand bookshop.

I have to say that I will be livid if our little village library closes. We go regularly, DD is currently doing the summer reading thing and my DS loves 'buying' books there. OK so the titles are a bit limited at times however I don't think the services available are advertised sufficiently as any book can be requested. I regularly request books (especially children's books) and collect them from the local library.

Blueshoes, I think you are missing the point a bit. Those little libraries are meeting places for locals, they provide extra books for local schools and enable school children who don't have a very good library to see a proper library in action. Besides do you honestly believe that bus services will be improved, for rural areas they are shocking and unlikely, imo, to ever be improved.

Thanks, theyoungvisitor. I agree about the local libraries, just wasn't sure in my area they were actually being used that much.

Genuine question: do properly staffed reference libraries in a central location exist?

I don't need the British Library, just some half or even quarterway house. I am in London, specifically south-east, does anyone know where I can find this library? When I asked where to find a larger library, the person at my local library told me to go to another which was not much better.