Proof of ID for library.

[Isthiscorrect]

Ds lives in Brum. He lives in a shared house. Has been in this house for almost 2 years and in a different house before this with the same landlord.

To open a bank account he took his passport and his rental contract, his salary slip and his work contract.

Today he has been to the main library in Brum with the aforementioned documents and has been refused to open a bank account. They say he needs a utility bill. He says I don't have any and they won't be swayed. Apparently a utility bill is a hill hey are prepared to die on.

AIBU to think this doesn't appear to be very inclusive?

No fines or fees at our libraries either.

Does your DS have a driver's licence? I think that's all my library wanted when I joined.

What a really nasty post. Do you feel better now for getting that out? I still ring my mom to moan about frustrating things that irk me in life. My mom still proffers suggestions and offers of help. I’m 56. She’s 86. I hope that’s ok with you! It’s what families do. Clearly the op hoped the wider mn community would have some help and experience of this scenario that she and her ds hadn’t thought of.

op yes he should be able to print a “certified” copy of a bank statement off. Or go into a branch to get one off. What a palaver for a library card though!

Both my adult DS1 & I joined the local library recently we both needed proof of address, we just showed our driving licence.

No you didn’t @MereDintofPandiculation you just wanted to be an arse.

is there no problem too small for people to get arsey about today? 🙄

What do you get out of being so rude?

What a spiteful post. Mine are in their 20's and still ask for my advice on occasion...

Librarian here, we are told we have to see physical proof of address, we can't use anything shown on a phone.

Drivers licence, utility bill, etc. We have to do this apparently, due to DPS.

Alternatively, you could become an Instant Member online which allows you to take out 3 books and use the PCs for 3 months, then if you want to continue we need to see some sort of proof.

Honestly, to me that seems fair enough.

My bad. @Isthiscorrect I apologise.

Agreed, it seems very odd to me as well. But it's on their website.

So is the issue that he doesn't have sufficient ID, or that the person he's been to show documents to is being more strict than the list on the website?

In either case, if he gets nowhere in person, he could email them and say 'this is what ID I have, it meets your list, please confirm if it is enough to join your library' and hopefully he'll get a reply saying that's fine that he can then show the person at the library.

But I don't understand why some places still persist in asking for hard copy documents when so much is online these days. We struggle as our utilities are online and it's often down to how old our (only issued once a year remember) water bill is as to whether we have enough ID in some cases. If someone is going to produce fake confirmation of address, they're just as likely able to print out a convincing looking fake electricity bill or bank statement as they are tinker with a PDF to produce an electronic version.

What a horrible thing to say.

We struggle as our utilities are online and it's often down to how old our (only issued once a year remember) water bill is as to whether we have enough ID in some cases.

You can ask your utility company to send you a printed copy of your most recent bill. I've had to do this. IIRC, it was my gas bill and the option was there to tick on the British Gas website.

As photo

I genuinely didn't understand the OP, and I'm not the only one who was thinking she meant a bank account. You, on the other hand, are being gratuitously unpleasant.

Thank you everyone. Apologies from me for the confusion. What I was trying to say was the info he used to open a bank account was not acceptable to he library.

Apology appreciated for what some people deemed unkind. Totally appreciate DS can deal with this himself. He was venting. I was curious as I don't live in the UK and have no idea what's required.

We both greatly appreciate the help and suggestions. He has spoken to a manager of the library and to his bank and the same bank statement will be acceptable.

Very interesting about the different requirements for different libraries.

Glad he seems to have got it sorted. But the library shouldn't have made it that difficult!

The local authority that I worked for allowed homeless people and also visitors from overseas to join. Obviously they wouldn't have a utility bill. I've never heard of this in a library

I work at the Library of Birmingham, we require one form of ID with address to join as a member, we accept electronic forms of ID too. Even if your son had nothing with an address on he should have still been able to get a temporary/month pass if he had something with just his name on.

The exact same thing happened to me yesterday op! Went to our new local library (me and 3 kids) with bank statements with address and other ID, they refused to let me get a library card as I specifically needed a paper utility bill. I don’t have a printed utility bill, all my bills and statements are online. I offered to show them my online accounts or even print out a bill myself, but they said it’s not good enough? The only way I’ll be allowed a library card is if I switch one of my utility bills from online to printed and wait for one to arrive in the post. I only wanted to borrow some books for the summer for my kids ffs 😡

Crikey. It's amazing isn't it. When you read that some places need next to nothing and others require paper bills. Mad.

Thanks. I sent him this. He's working at the moment so we shall see what he has to say later.

Glad it seems to have been sorted out.

Worth your son once he has the library card to write to the Council. It should not need the intervention of a library manager, and for someone for whom English is not their main language, I can imagine they would just walk away.

I love the idea of all Librarians doing training to keep track of what you borrow and then becoming Private Detectives to interpret what each customer must be up to ----

In a previous library I forgot my own library card, but had one of the kids with me so went to use theirs. The librarian refused to let me check my books out with my childs card, as if I was planning on taking home a book about autopsies and one on Henry Lee Lucas and reading it to my 3yo 🤣