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!

There's an obvious conflict between all the ideas for story time, singing time, children's clubs, etc and the need for a place to read or work in peace and quiet. I wonder whether one of the meeting rooms could be designated a quiet reading space.

@LibraryLibrary at lot of libraries have "Friends of X Library" groups these days.
Usually registered as a charity and they support and fundraise for the library.
Similar to school PTAs which are usually called "Friends of X Primary" or local parks often have a "Friends of".
That's how you get the extra money.
The council can't raise money but an associated charity can. They (the charity) can also apply for grants like Lottery Funds.

Was Sunday a popular day, do you think? Or was Saturday more popular?

Sunday (and Saturday) are very popular where I live.
I live in area of London that is very quiet Monday to Friday because everyone is at work, nursery or school so the weekends are popular.
However the towns my mum and mother in law live in (two different Midlands towns) don't have a bus service on a Sunday so the town centres are quiet then.
It depends on your area really.

Could the two weeks be spread out ?

My dc and my students use the library Easter onwards for revision time.

Storytimes for babies and toddlers are always great. Coffee mornings for older, perhaps socially isolated people. Craft groups, lego clubs, chess clubs. Basically, energise the space with community activity.

Some great ideas here. A couple of us in the brainstorming group are very keen on the idea of helping children (both young children and teenagers) with reading. The criminal record checks are off-putting though, and young volunteers might not stay very long, which would make it more difficult to justify getting the checks done for them. Our town is socially mixed but I'd say that it isn't very culturally mixed, though we do have quite a few Ukrainian families.

Could you get people to donate Lego? I have lots and I keep meaning to give it away. Or a swap shop for sets.

@BeBesideTheSea Yes, I think we could think about stopping people in the street and asking them some questions about what they want from their library. Or sending a questionnaire round in children's book bags at school. Maybe the local secondary school would agree to run some brainstorming sessions for different age groups - it would be educational as well as informative.

Remember that volunteers, especially young ones need supervision. That takes up time by paid library assistants. I work in a library and some of our libraries are run by volunteers but they need a lot of support by paid staff. Some people think it's just shelving books but there is a lot more to it!

Volunteers don't need DBS checks as long as they aren't alone with kids. As a library assistant I don't have a DBS check. I personally think we should all be DBS checked as children and teens do come in unaccompanied and some small libraries have lone working.

Agree about the political messaging. And I'm not really interested in combining that with 'staff picks' in a massive display in the middle of the library. Mr R was the local librarian when I was a kid and he was just unobtrusive but helpful if you asked him anything. That little library was a wee haven for me and I think read every book in the place.

I can't speak for all areas, but where I am, there is an abundance of groups and activities for babies/toddlers/young children. The older they get, the less there is available. There is also very little in the way of social activities for ND teens/young adults/adults.

But libraries will need to expand their opening times. I understand though that volunteers would be harder to come by if they were asked to work evenings.

As a child i was always in the library. I was an avid reader of fiction, but also went to get books for whatever topic I was hyperfocusing on (my mum was baffled when I came home with about 8 books about cheese). I went there to get books out to help with homework, and also to rent CDs and videos.

Nowadays I prefer audio books as I can't relax enough at home to sit and read, so I listen as I'm cleaning or cooking. Any research that needs to be done for kids homework is done on Google. I also don't use CDs, videos, or DVDs anymore.

The only thing that would get me in a library now would be a very quiet, comfortable reading area.

When our young people volunteer some charities/ organisations pay for the DBS check. Others the individuals pay.

It might be worth getting in touch with Read easy. They help people who are complete beginners.

I really hope you can pull this off as I love libraries and think they can be a real heart of a community. Agree with pp that advertising is key.

My library has a designated reading room and I think that's really good along with extended opening hours, but it is right beside the children's area. If things are clearly advertised then you can avoid the times children's activities are happening. I'm less likely to go in on a Saturday afternoon but more likely to go in on a Sunday or an evening opening and use that room - except for the fact it's been unavailable the last couple of times I've been in. I do think you're right that libraries are trying to be all things to all people to justify their existence and that shouldn't be the case.

This sounds quite do-able - thanks.

These days I think we need both. I do think that there's room for discussion about the types of books that the library stocks.

Unfortunately I can’t really see how you will, a coworking space I suppose if you have space could attract new people but if your hours are like our local library (8am-7pm as a member, it’s unmanned 8-10am and 5-7pm) it’s not that issue, it’s people prefer to buy books and own computers already

As a child, I was very heavily involved with my local library. There was a group of children aged between 6 - 12, and we helped make decisions for the library. We would meet one evening every week to do various craft activities (sometimes hosted by third party providers). We would visit the local care homes and return their books / bring new books for those who were unable to visit the library due to health issues etc.
We were also involved with the County and became a little consultation group, so to speak, when deciding which children's books should be stocked in the library. We would host "bring & buy" sales to raise money for new books outside of the general funding provided.
I'm from an area which was in extreme poverty, and it really helped keep a lot of children on the "right path" and gave us an identity.
(I also realise I may have gone off on a very unhelpful tangent)

I used to work in one, we weren’t allowed to say anything to children who were running around screaming and/or bashing into old ladies who were trying to choose books. We had to be ‘child friendly’, didn’t we?

I once had a very minor go at a child who was bashing some toy - hard! - on one of our computer keyboards, just told him to stop it. The mother, of course, was not watching her kids at all. But she later complained that I had told her child off, and I was ticked off!

That's useful, thanks. How does the self service work? Does anyone with a library card have access to the main library, or just access to one room? Does nobody vandalise the library or steal books while it's not staffed? Our town has a problem with vandalism by teenagers.

My local library is really not set up for working people, I would prefer longer weekend opening hours. Currently, most of the opening hours clash with work or with kids other activities.

Also, my nearest big library sacrificed shelf space for meeting space, and as a result, the selection is pretty poor, especially for independently reading primary age kids. Not many books, and lots are books 4 and 8 only from a series, for example.

I have a DC who reads a lot, bit he rarely finds anything he wants in the library, on the rare occasions that we go. I've occasionally ordered things in. But in reality, I have a kindle unlimited subscription used by the whole family, and the DC also have a lot of books via Kindle kids. So often, we can get what we want for free, immediately, rather than travelling five miles to the nearest library.

We have made the effort to attend lego and craft events, but these have been stopped. I'd love a local library with Sunday opening, and drop in events like that, and a nice area for me to browse/read while the kids do lego/crafts.

It will probably be a system called Open Plus which is from a company called Bibliotecha. People scan their library card at the door and enter a code to gain entry. Works well in my library service. Very little ASB. But costs money to install and run, and you’ll probaly need CCTV. Lots of library authorities now use it (or something similar). Not the same as having staff around though.

My old library was very popular, because the librarian made a point of filling it with groups and events: U3A history, watercolours and Latin groups (plus the hiking group set off from there!), story-time (followed up by a related craft activity) for pre-schoolers, silent discos before Christmas, Andy's Man Club, coding club, Lego club, knitting club, seasonal events, etc. They also had school groups popping in for story-times and for the children to swap their library books.

It is quite a big library, so it has a children's area, one for YA, and a dedicated room for adults, plus a separate reading room (normally filled by older men reading newspapers!), and spaces for computers. Any new stock went on a featured display before joining the older books, and some of the older stock was sold off for something like 10p a book to raise money for the library and its activities. It was always reasonably busy with groups in the day-time, and virtually packed after school!

@LibraryLibrary it’s a mix - the one in the leisure centre is just open as there are staff there on reception.

on the others you do some online ‘training’ and then your card is logged to allow you access. It’s then scan to enter and push button to get out. There has never been any bad behaviour I have seen - mainly teenagers busy studying and other people popping in and out. My daughter gets annoyed they they kick everyone out at manned opening and then make you come back in with your card. You are not mean to scan anyone else in. I don’t know if everyone sticks to that. I do try and ensure no one is nearly so they cannot nip in behind me. I assume there is some central cctv.

our main borough library which also contains council office is proposed to be redeveloped. They are looking at moving it to the shopping centre to make use of some of the empty space there and then redevelop the old space into flats. I guess with everyone wfh the council offices are probably also very underutilised.