To ask you how to encourage more people to use the library?

[LibraryLibrary]

My local library wants and needs to attract more users. It's set up a group of volunteers to brainstorm ideas. Predictably, the volunteers are mostly drawn from the people who already use and value the library, which I think is limiting our ideas. Can you help with any suggestions, based on what the library you go to does well? Or based on what you'd like your local library to do? And what do you think puts people off from using the library?
A bit of info on our library: It's in a small to medium-sized town which is socially quite mixed. It's close to several schools (primary and secondary) and to a supermarket. It has parking, but the car park is sometimes full. It has a large open space, plus a couple of meeting rooms.
Among other things, it would be good to hear what you think about opening hours. When would you like your local library to be open? And if the library has to have an annual 2 week shut-down period, to save on costs, when would you prefer that period to be?
Thanks!

That's an interesting idea. So a little bit like a youth club.

A Geek club night sounds like a great idea.

It’s less formal than that, they just choose to hang out, which I think is lovely. It’s not supervised as such but the one I saw was off to the side of main library but open and visible to staff working there. You could also rent video games. I have friends over there and their kids regularly go after school. They had grown-up colouring too - ones teens would do - with huge drawers of pencils/felt tips etc. They also had Marvel-type comics

Personally, I'd like to see a focus on the library being open at times when people are not at work or at school. I'd love to see either all day Saturday or all day Sunday opening, and opening during all school holidays, as well as some regular evening opening. At the moment the library does have 2 days when it's open until 7, and it's open on Saturday mornings, so we're relatively lucky I think. I hadn't thought about children being busy with activities on Saturday mornings, and I'll mention that. Do you think opening on Sunday morning would be better than opening on Saturday morning?

Our local library has a piano in the hall. It's really popular because there are a lot of students with no where to practice.

Doesn’t that put everyone else off?

Ours is only open until lunchtime on Saturday, such a shame as I've often wanted to visit on Saturday afternoon.

Definitely regular groups for children. Our local children's centre used the library as the venue for a story group, so it was not run by library staff. Would this work for you? Wouldn't take away your staff but gets people through the door. Also the major and local press were in invited for one session to get word out.

How about the annual closure first two weeks of Sept when children have just gone back to school and tired of an evening? Not during school holidays as families need something to do and you may get tourists too?

It's far enough away from the area with the books and quite close to the noisy coffee machine, so ok! It's an area with chairs where you agree to wait for someone on a rainy day, wait for the bus, or have a cheap, safe 15 min first date, so it's actually really nice listening for a bit. They have displays of books so I pick one up to flick through for 15 mins instead of playing on my phone, and let the baby out of his buggy for a crawl. It's a very different way of using the library to most of the other suggestions.

I agree that closing during the warm months would be better than closing during the cold months (though I suppose the latter would save more money). I definitely think they should start having a storytelling time. I wonder whether opening on Saturday afternoon would make more sense than opening on Saturday morning (which is the current weekend opening time).

Saturday vs Sunday mornings is really dependant on families and sports - Sunday morning clashes with church, lots of rugby clubs play on Sunday - but then round here school rugby and football is Saturday. It might be worth polling your local families, could you put together an easy form to fill in and ask schools to send it out to families?

Our local library hosts two baby bounce and rhymes a week. A toddler stay and play session and an older kids lego session each week. They also do free crafts in the holidays, certainly gets families in

@FancyBiscuitsLevel I think some kind of a survey or questionnaire would be a good idea, maybe in book bags.

A lot of libraries seem to offer lego sessions. Does anyone know what age group that's for and whether these sessions are led by an adult (who might actually need to be good at lego and be criminal record cleared)?

I think it's unlikely that the library can manage to fit in or run a cafe, but the suggestion of a coffee machine might be worth a look.

I used to live in another location

I used the small local library, but I really struggled to return the books due to the library being closed
before I left work. This library had no drop off box to return books out of hours.

Could you put up an ad in library for lego donations, Facebook marketplace or mention to a charity shop if they get donations?

100%. This is the biggest reason I don't use my library more.

Also wish it was open on a Sunday too.

I don't know if it ever got off the ground but my local library were once talking about a partnership with the community nursing team where once per month the nurses would come go give talks on topics nominated by the community. The idea was that people could make suggestions of health topics they wanted to know more about and the nurses would organise a talk or workshop. A few examples given were healthy diet for children, mental health in teenagers, supporting someone with addiction, diabetes/obesity.

I run a Lego club at my school. I haven't had to buy any Lego. I've been deluged with the stuff!

You don't need any skill either as the merest mention of Lego will attract highly skilled Lego builders, mostly boys, 11-12.

Some stacking storage boxes with clear lids, and a few base plates may be useful.

Our library is great. Books, free computers, wifi, it has a café and loads of activities going on. It's like a social hub.

The librarians at the libraries I have used could do with being a bit more cheerful and welcoming.

We're lucky - our librarians are very welcoming.

OP

I think volunteers get a free DBS, I'm not 100% sure.

If you have teens over age 16 then they can get a DBS and then register for the update service, this is another thing that looks good on a CV.

I think some are library staff /council and some are volunteers.

They have a coding club, I'll try and find and send you a link.

They wouldn't survive if they were just quiet places to read.