Libraries are the wrong target to save money

[seekinginspiration]

To think that this summer (2011) is the opportunity to save your local library? Go there, and take out books. Yes, before the (thought police) check this ? it does involve politics,; but NO : the money involved is minimalistic: £20,000 to staff a library for one year. Yes my 21 year old son is using a kindle, yes my 15 year old never goes to the library?.. but the library is important. Every library in BRITAIN reflects Britiain because it reflects localism. Every library and every community is different ?. Please respect that ?.. libraries of Britain CAN be the CATALYSTS of change - new business; old business = re-groath and new beginnings. PLEASE recognize that libraries are the WRONG target for saving money. FAR from being ?the easy target? libraries are the wrong target. ?? and I could go on ?. About why libraries are so important to British society but I WON?T ? I will ask you to tell this government WHY ?. SO Please tell them. ??..

fivegomad, I think Yikert's point was that there were few customers and five staff. Saying that there might be more staff behind the scenes is supporting Yikert's point, I think?

Councillors are voted in to set the civic budget.

Sadly the turn out is as low as 15% in some wards. Mine is 25%.

Whilst I do use my local library, I do think they are luxury that we can no longer afford so I'm not opposed to them being targetted for cuts.

No the staff up front also do a lot of behind the scenes work.

Our library is having it's hours cut and our long standing librarian who is part of the community was forced into redundancy(ie given another post hours away for teeny hours).

As an ex teacher I'm very worried,not for my kids but other kids.I also suspect the reduced hours could have an impact on the local school's reading levels.

I've yet to find out what the actual hours will be(nobody will until Sep which I think is quite clever as it'll be job done).If the opening hours will be during the school day no kid will be able to go.If they keep it open for just 1 or 2 evenings again it will be a problem as most kids have clubs(school runs an active free program of clubs which are popular).

With the cost of petrol and extortionate parking many parents won't take their kids to the near by city library,the bus(even though it's only 20 mins away) is over £7 so highly unlikely it will be used for a weekly library trip.

My dp has what some would regard as a good income and I can't afford to buy my 3 books on a regular basis.Second hand books are ok but going up in price and any decent ones are snapped up.

My kids get hooked on series of books ie Famous Five,Dirty Berty etc.They devour them.I will make sure we shlep over to the city library to keep them stocked but many parents won't have that luxury or even be bothered anyway.Our local library is in the middle of town and many kids could pop in on the way to the sweet shop.If it isn't open they can't so they'll read less and it can only have an impact on reading levels.

When the Tories have seen the obvious result from closing libraries and reducing hours they'll reverse the whole policy which will cost a whole lot more as they retrain and recruit new staff.

Utter madness!

Well thanks for the comments. Perhaps I should not be surprised by the negativity of some of the replies as latest research tells us how self-absorbed we are all becoming. One recent survey indicated a large percentage increase of people who focus entirely on their own needs and those of their immediate family. It really does not look good for any society: small or Big. Will the school library buy large print books and allow the public into the school to borrow them? I don?t think so. Will the beacon school with thousands of books allow the neighbouring school (now out of special measures) to use their library? I don?t think so. Will the school library source information on academic studies for mature students? Will the school let the unemployed people in the school to use their computers and fill out on-line job applications? Do I need to say more?

Many small libraries are overwhelmed with children and parents in the school holidays and need volunteers in the holidays exactly when the volunteers go on holiday! The image portrayed by some of the comments implies they are all empty all of the time. Certainly from my experience this is far from reality. Local (fee paying) activity providers want to put their publicity on our walls. They want the leaflets for classes, public speaking training or summer activity camps at the private schools displayed. Often they do not meet the strict display policy. They know that the libraries are far from empty. It is a cradle to grave service. I am deeply saddened that so many people do not appreciate the cohesive role that libraries have played in British society and the consequences that will happen if we do not recognize it soon.

Surely you can see the need has changed though? You may not believe they are empty but in many areas they are. If people aren't using a service how can keeping it open be justified?

The whole library service does need an overhaul and modernisation nationally to review what each community wants/needs from the library and how that can best be provided whilst also cutting costs which is needed in the current economic climate.

'Self absorbed'?

That's pretty patronising, not to say insulting. Surely, it's far more 'self-absorbed' to selfishly wish to keep a costly institution going if it plainly isn't working well for the community, especially if it means sacrificing something that is of genuine & immediate need? I also think it's 'self-absorbed' not to think outside the box on this one.... stay wedded to the traditional model of a static, council-funded lending library when there are many other formats and ways of funding that could be explored.

I have a kindle. I buy paper and e-books online. I am a distance learner studying an MSc with a large university so can access journals online. I buy charity shop books.

None of these things mean I don't want to use a library or feel that, as a public service, it is an irrelevance or waste of money.

When my MSc studies finish in March, I will have nowhere to go to read or work quietly. I find it really hard to concentrate at home with all the hubbub in a 2 bedroom noisy house.

You see all sorts of people in the library, many of whom are using it as a convenient place to study all sorts of qualifications to get ahead. I see people working on job applications etc... sometimes it's just a place people go to get away from the chaos of the rest of their lives when they don't have a nice large house they can utilise for this purpose. Older people chat to the desk staff. Mothers, carers and childminders come to nursery rhyme groups or to sit and read with their children, giving them broader access to literature than they would otherwise have. School children sit in the library to do their homework when again, they may not have space or silence at home to really give any attention to their work.

Kindles and the internet will not replace these functions. Ironically, the areas where kindles/internet/space to study at home are most available are likely to be those areas which manage the complexity of the transition to the Big Society best. Areas that truly need and benefit from library services are most likely to be excluded from this process.

"Are we not just naturally moving away from libraries towards - buying books, reading online, those kindle things even?"Are we not just naturally moving away from libraries towards - buying books, reading online, those kindle things even?"

not everyone can afford to buy books, even on teh internet or Kindle.

You can download books from your local library onto a Kindle - it's the same borrowing period as with paper books.

And I still can't afford to buy three new hardbacks a week.

it is rather self asorbed to say, well I work and so I don't get to go to the library with my kids because at the weekends I do other things with them so because I don't use them or see the value in them then they shouldn't really be funded so much.

How does that work motherinferior? I don't think I've seen anything about that in my library but would be very keen!

Our library has an e-books section. You rootle, frustratedly, on the website for it

yanbu.

The fact is we should be making sure every library is packed to the gills,not closing them. Reading levels still aren't good enough in many areas.The only way you boost reading levels is to read,you can only read if you have easy access to a huge supply of books ie a very local library.

My kids go to a school lucky enough to have a library but they're only allowed one a week and they're collected in during the hols which is pretty useless to be frank.

Sorry just because your child has good reading skills and you can afford to buy a steady supply of books and e-books doesn't mean it's ok to close libraries-the op is right that is a self absorbed view.

Re Kindles they cost,the e-books cost and my dc spend enough time in front of screens as it.I don't want my 3 on Kindles but with their noses in real books.

Do people who have poor standards of literacy go to libraries though, I get the impression that most library uses are well educated and have no literacy problems at all.

Mila - how do you plan on getting these people into the library though? You can lead a horse to water and all that.

Everyone knows libraries are there, not everyone makes the choice to use them for whatever reason.

I use 5 local libraries, and take out at least 20 books a week. I couldn't afford to buy all the books I read, I love having a chat with the staff and they always seem to have a new book I havent read for me

Don't agree at all we have some really well used library's in our council but, their are also some libraries that are in wired locations not bear hardly any transport right away from any main shops and no one goes in their rarely used.

Most places in London any way have mini high streets and thats were the libraries should be placed.

We had one set up in our high street and its heaving most days unless you go early you can't move for people because they drop in after shopping were as if its out they way people don't tend to bother.

They also attached the smaller libraries to the sports centres which works really well they have a smallish room were you can drop back books and order books in from the bigger libraries and also book computer time its really good I believe its this type of thinking thats needed to many libraries stay open which only and hand full of people from the immediate houses and because of their location nobody from the wider communities use them

Also most libraries have rooms up stairs which they don't rent out they could be used for after school clubs, mum and baby groups , health visitor sessions grouping together services saves moony but for some reason in some areas making a library into that and somthing else seems to be beyond most councils

I think schools should be doing more and actually more money should be going into libraries to entice people(children in particular) in there.

Not all libraries are just used by the well educated,bit insulting to infer that this is the case. Our local one is used by the whole community young and very old,all walks of life.

Personally I fail to see how you can raise literacy levels without free and easy access to a good supply of books ie a well stocked local library. Raising literacy levels is good for society as a whole,we all benefit even those in a cloistered Kindle world.

I don't use the library so much, but my dd (8) loves the summer reading challenges. Our library charges £2 for a 2 year library card now (which I was a bit about - especially because they didn't tell me about the charge until they'd given me the new cards) but I'm happy to pay a couple of quid if it keeps the library going. Our library cards also get us into local museums free, so it's a bit of a bargain really.
I don't know what I'd do without the library in the summer - I would have to buy dd at least 10 books to read and I couldn't afford to do that.

I know this is mumsnet but school-age children aren't the only people who use libraries! Our local library is brilliant and always busy with the elderly picking up their large-print books ("Can you just check if I've already read this dear?" being a particular favourite recurring question), older kids on their own enjoying a safe space and maybe even learning something at the same time, loads of people using the computers, people coming in to read the newspapers, etc. These services just wouldn't be picked up by a school library, however good it was.

Instead of destroying the library system, councils should be using their excellent 'footprint' to take services out of big, expensive central offices and into the community - our library has a council enquiry desk, for example, and the building houses the local registrars. Council services should be 'hubbed' - so you could have housing, libraries, general services all operating out of one library building, enabling the council to dispose of expensive head offices and get there arses out into the community.

AND my DS has SN and OF COURSE I am wailing at the cuts that have been made to support budgets but that doesn't mean that libraries aren't important too.