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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

would you volunteer to keep your library open?

337 replies

carriedababi · 15/02/2011 15:52

?

OP posts:
sausagerollmodel · 15/02/2011 19:52

No, much as I love our library I don't have time as I am either working or looking after the family.
This won't work - if libraries could be run by volunteers they would be doing this already, no?

ThisIsANiceCage · 15/02/2011 19:52

No, out of principal.

Happy to volunteer for nice-to-haves; definitely not up for replacing a paid job. Definitely definitely not up for providing a fig leaf to make cuts appear less damaging (briefly, until the volunteer libraries collapse in shambles).

ThisIsANiceCage · 15/02/2011 19:53

principal principle Blush

TimeWasting · 15/02/2011 20:01

I'd volunteer to do a children's story club or listen to adult learners read.
That's different.

I'd rather they shut the schools than the libraries. Why bother teaching the poor kids to read if they can't get any books?!

HappyMummy, nominal charges still add up, and I'm already paying, my council tax.

Wook · 15/02/2011 20:02

Happymummyofone don't patronise me please! I know exactly what you meant and I disagreed with you. The thing about a library is that the whole point of them is to offer people books for FREE. FREE!!! They are not meant to make a profit or charge people, they offer everyone totally equal access to knowledge. A nominal charge is still a charge. And by the way what is 'nominal' to some is not nominal to others. The point of a library is that they don't charge. They have intrinsic value. They are for POOR PEOPLE as well as people with money. For children, pensioners, everyone.
How about a nominal charge for schools, hospitals and all other state run services while we are at it. Let's rid ourselves for ever of the concept of collectively providing things in our society for EVERYONE to benefit from with no discrimination at the point of access. It's so old fashioned!

compo · 15/02/2011 20:10

Volunteers currently help out in libraries
they do storytimes
take books to the housebound
help amateurs on the computers
but they are all crb checked by paid staff , they are coordinated by paid staff, they get petrol costs and free services from the library organised by paid staff
volunteers can't train other volunteers
libraries are seen as a soft target which they're not

MilaMae · 15/02/2011 20:12

No

  1. I know our librarian and she'd be devastated if she lost her job.I also don't think I'd do it as well as her even though I have an English degree.

  2. I refuse to bail David Cameron out of the shit he's causing.

3)He's taking away my CB,TC and therefore my capped water rates so bog off Davey boy.

  1. I errr work most days of the week and I'd have childcare issues.If I wasn't working I couldn't afford childcare.I wouldn't get much done as I'd spend most of the time rounding up said kids,stopping them from hacking into the computer system whilst I was supposed to be scanning.

  2. I have no free time,thanks to this gov dp and I are working every hour we can. I also have 3 kids.

  3. I don't see David Cameron or Sam Cam practicing what he preaches.

6)I just don't want to

7)Sorry I'm a grown woman nobody tells me what to do with the little free time I have

....... yeah I know,best stop now.

compo · 15/02/2011 20:17

Appluauds milamae

it's the retired do gooders who'll volunteer

like the one who runs our libraries user group who is openly homeophobic and objected to our display for black history month

FannyAdamsToo · 15/02/2011 20:28

All for the volunteering thing but isn't half the battle the fact that usage is so desperately low that it doesn't make sense to keep them open - with volunteers or paid staff.

Sadly I am currently tasked with the business of consultation and ultimate redundancy of the staff from libraries that are due to close in the area I live in (am a HR person)and having seen the attendance figures of the libraries in question, will say that the service has been woefully underused for some years. It's all very well people getting on the 'save the libraries' bandwagon,but, had the same group of people used the services regularly beforehand then we wouldn't be having to cut jobs in this area.

Maybe a controversial viewpoint, given the title of the thread, but someone had to point out the obvious.

I'm off to get my tin hat before the flaming starts.

slowshow · 15/02/2011 20:28

coastgirl - just wanted to address your point about public libraries providing access to ebooks, because I hear this suggestion a lot.

I work in a university library, who already purchase ebooks. And you know what? People don't want to use them! Usage is really very poor considering how much they cost. We can have a queue of people waiting for hard copies of textbooks, and will even take the time to email them and say "You know there's an ebook you can have RIGHT NOW?" and the general consensus is usually "Nah, I'll wait".

That's a bit of a digression though, because the real issue is cost. Ebooks are hugely expensive, because publishers don't charge a fixed price for them. Ebooks are sold according to tiered pricing, which in turn is determined by the size of the institution (aka the number of students). A single ebook can and does cost thousands of pounds, and it isn't always a one off payment either. Some are sold on a subscription basis, so that's thousands of pounds annually. And publishers get away with it because academic libraries NEED those books, so they can essentially charge whatever the hell they want.

For public libraries, it's different. Budgets are (I'm guessing) a great deal smaller, and the numbers of potential users much higher. If a public library approaches a publisher about the price of an ebook, the first question they'll be asked is the size of the population. 100,000 people living in your town? Hoo boy... It honestly would cost each borough in the country millions and millions to purchase ebooks on any kind of meaningful scale, so in reality, it's completely impossible. And until publisher business models change

I'll say it again, I'm an academic librarian so not an expert on the public library situation, but academic libraries find ebooks prohibitively expensive, and they have a great deal more money to throw at them (although, believe me, this sector is in the shit financially as well). Public libraries don't have a hope.

MilaMae · 15/02/2011 20:33

Good point Compo. Where will the regulation come from?I know a lot of older folk resent kids being in libraries would they be able to just throw them out?

It's the same with the forests if you got pro cyclists taking over they could trash the footpaths if not regulated properly. If a body of older folk took over they could ban cycling completely.

A body taking over anything is going to run things the way they want them run. Also it's all very well saying well get involved but in my experience of committees you often get one vociferous member who generally bullies the rest into doing what they want to do.

TimeWasting · 15/02/2011 20:34

Fanny, I'm in the library every week.
I know most people aren't, but closing them won't help that. Grin

FannyAdamsToo · 15/02/2011 20:39

Fair point TimeWasting!! As it goes, so am I.

If only the do-gooder brigade were as well. Seems to me that people love to join the bandwagon when the story hits the headlines - if they had been concerned over the libraries before the cause made the front pages of the daily mail then there woudn't be an issue.

weblette · 15/02/2011 20:53

So how many of you actually have experience of this?
Our village library was up for cull 18mths ago. County withdrew funding and redeployed their staff, from having a facility open six days a week we were offered two sessions of mobile library.
We formed a group, raised money, garnered donations, pestered county and they deigned to allow us to keep it open and using their computer system.
We have one retired librarian, the rest are mere stoopid volunteers. If we hadn't fought it the library would have disappeared altogether, the mobile library service has been slashed.
Our village still has a place where older people can come and read the paper, people can access the Internet, children can come for storytime.
To all of you who say no to volunteering, what the hell else would you have done????

SevenAgainstThebes · 15/02/2011 20:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Wook · 15/02/2011 21:14

fannyadams how would you define 'underused' though? And isn't a more important question what value does each use have to the user? And what value does that value to that user have in turn for society. I would argue that every one single person in society who becomes more literate, better informed, more entertained/happier - that has value for all of us.
Our school library could be better used. For the minority of students who use it voluntarily and regularly, it is the most important place in the school.
A million people might go and use Tesco, so Tesco is well used. Is a Tesco store worth having but a library not for this reason?

MadamDeathstare · 15/02/2011 21:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

compo · 15/02/2011 21:19

Weblette - exactly my point. Does the op know how to get donations etc . Would people do as much as you have done, I doubt it

SevenAgainstThebes · 15/02/2011 21:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DuelingFanjo · 15/02/2011 21:28

no.

I am a trained librarian and as it's my career choice I would rather have a paid job.

DuelingFanjo · 15/02/2011 21:31

"why isn't somebody like Foyles or Waterstones offering to become sponsors? "

because Waterstones is fucked! seriously, some of their stores will be closing because HMV are seriously in debt.

ivykaty44 · 15/02/2011 21:32

The one job I really would like to see turned over to volunteers and that really would mean unwaged and unpaid volunteers is - - prime Mininister.

lets sack the PM and then offer him the job as a volunteer, he will though only be able to do 2 hours per week and others will volunteer to make up the other hours Wink

frgr · 15/02/2011 21:39

Whether or not I want to doesn't really come into it I'm afraid. It's like asking me whether I'd like a pearl or a diamond necklace - why should I bother considering being part of this "big society" when I'm working every hour God sends to keep a roof over our heads as it is?

My job is somewhat secure we due to the rising cost of food, petrol, we're starting to struggle to pay for the bills, having kept our heads above water for a while now. Any extra work beyond my paid employment, looking after our own children, and (you never know, it might happen) getting the occasional spare hour to myself, anything EXTRA that I regularly, reliable "volunteer" for will have to come with a wage packet as well.

I don't mind helping out the occasional school thing, I can offer time rather than cash when I can, but the fact is that my family needs more income, not seeing their mum less because she's off working at the library and putting a librarian's assistant out of a job. Or - you know - doing my actual normal job, or doing housework.

David Cameron can fuck right off, if I'm being honest.

maddy68 · 15/02/2011 21:46

I used to be a librarian and I would not.
They are so underused these days it is just an outdated thing.

I actually think that they should now be closed.

coastgirl · 15/02/2011 21:47

slowshow, that's really interesting about the ebooks. I was working on a Masters last year and I really got frustrated by the fact there were hardly any ebooks available - my course was for people currently working as teachers and the uni library is an hour away from where I live, so I never went there once! As a dedicated Kindle user I would have loved to use academic ebooks but instead I ended up using whatever I could buy from Amazon for a decent price - not exactly the best way of doing academic research.