to wonder why my friend doesn't use the library?

[LissyGlitter]

My friend posted on a website we both go on, asking if anybody had any roald dahl books they could lend her for a few days as she needs to do a project for her schoolkids (she's a TA) and several people offered one each, so my friend will have to drive round all the local suburbs collecting the books, remember who lent which one, and return them all to the right people. I suggested she just nip to the local library, and she said it was "too much hassle". The mind boggles.

I am shocked at the amount of people who don't use their local library. Why on earth would you not use it? I am the least organised person EVER and I can manage to either return the books within a couple of weeks or nip online and renew them without any trouble, it's completely free, kids don't even have fines, you don't even have to return books to the same library they came from! I didn't even have to provide any ID when I recently joined my local library (I have recently moved house to another council area)

So, what is the excuse for not allowing your kids access to millions of free books? Or even for not allowing yourself them? I enjoy having a huge collection of books (we have just thinned out our collection for moving by about 50%, and still have enough to cover an entire wall of our front room, and we are pretty poor) but I don't want to keep every single thing I read, and there's a limit to the amount of money I want to spend on novels that I'm only likely to ever read once anyway.

The libraries are no longer scary places where a woman in a twinset and a severe bun shushes you, they are fun, friendly places, where your kids will be welcomed and the library assistants and librarians will help you find what you want. If you are not a member or you don't use your membership, go there today!

Over the past few months I have started using my local library after many years of not going near the place. They now have computerised book returns and borrowing, which I like.
But I don't like how the books are arranged on the shelves - yes I know there is a system, but I find it hard to locate the books.
I now use the internet at home to check that my library has the book instock prior to visiting. I then check again once at the library to confirm that the book has not just been borrowed... then locate the book. Well... try to locate the book. Had to ask a librarian to help me locate a book on my last visit and even they could not find it. Computer said it was there, but neither I nor the librarian could find it. So... not a perfect system these new computer things.

The book has been ordered from another branch and I'm not being charged the reserve fee... but it's annoying to spend time trying to find a book you know should be on the shelf but isn't.

However a plus point I suppose is that I am now reading a book that I would not have normally picked up... as I didn't want to leave the library empty-handed.

"Had to ask a librarian to help me locate a book on my last visit and even they could not find it. Computer said it was there, but neither I nor the librarian could find it. So... not a perfect system these new computer things."

No they are not infallible unfortunately.

However we are up against the people who choose a book, wander around with it, decide they don't want it after all and stick it back anywhere.

Then of course we might not be able to find a book because it's been nicked. Yes, people do steal library books. We're never going to find those ones.

But my main bug-bear are the people who rip recipes out of the cookery books. It does happen.

YANBU - People should seriously consider using this fantastic free resource we have in the UK, for ourselves and children. The increasing closure of local libraries is the alternative if not.

I would love to use my library more but it is only open for a few hours Tuesday afternoon, Thursday morning and Saturday morning.

We use it in the summer holidays as they always run a reading scheme for kids and my DDs love having their own library cards.

I don't think that my mother could have kept up with my reading as a DC without the library-as it was I had to re read things.
I went every week and it was freedom to choose the books I wanted. Even if you are buying them from a charity shop the parent is having control and vetting them first. There doesn't have to be any of that at the library when you are not spending any money.

I don't because it's cheaper for me to buy the book as I always forget to return them on time!

yes love our library! dd1 loves it too though dh cannot understand why we go 'as we already have books'. hmm..he was never a big reader!
In fact we're off there this avo.Perfect entertainment when it's rainy.Also no fines on kids books.

I love the library. I read a book a night most nights (this is why my house is such a mess!)and I could never afford to buy them. I don't really need to use it for the dc as they have shelves full of books that they've been given but I still do because dd loves being left in the children's area to choose her own books.

They email me 3 days before they are due back and again the day they are due so I don't forget, and I can return books to any library in the area.

Being able to read books for free is great

I'm seriously pissed off with my library at the moment. Last week I took dd to their Rhyme Time session for the first time. When we got there (slightly late) there was nothing doing. Except there were abut 30 women and buggies crammed into the children's corner of the library, not doing anything except standing around chatting. We walked round and round but there was absolutely no way dd could get near any of the books or cushions. They weren't using the books or anything so presumably this meeting place could have bee relocated in the cafe outside the library doors?

This has happened a few times now and I can only take her on the days I'm not working. Don't think I'll bother any more.

Another library lover here. We live in Gateshead and our library is fab. It is open late, there is a huge dvd and cd section. It has a coffee shop, lots of seating areas, loads of computers and a quick choice area as soon as you go in which always seems to have LOADS of books I want to borrow. Always limit myself to two as I just read in bed. Also we can renew on the phone. You certainly don't have to be quiet at all although there is a seperate reference section and I suspect that is different. Would feel guilty buying books new but I always treat myself to 2 or 3 for the holidays as would feel wrong taking library books on holiday!

Blimmin' eck! My first thread in discussions of the day! I feel...accepted...

Anyway, I am just about to set off to meet a friend in a library/museum in a town I live nnowhere near nowadays. Libraries rule.

If you don't use libraries when your kids are little they are logically bound to find using them if they get to college/university or just want to research something or whatever much harder. So even if you have unlimited funds to buy your own books, your kids are still going to suffer for not knowing how a library works.

The person who doesn't know how the library is organised, I sympathise as it can be a bit scary to start with. Fiction (ie stuff that isn't true) is generally in alphabetical order by authors surname. Non-fiction (stuff that is true) is generally arranged in something called the Dewey Decimal system, where each subject has it's own number. If you are looking up the book on the catalogue (which is what you will be searching on the internet) there will be a bit that says something like "class number" or similar. Write down that number and the books should be in numerical order when you get to the library.

Some libraries have attempted to make themselves more "accesible" by dividing fiction into subject areas and so on, but IMO that just makes life harder for those of us who already know how to use a library. Again, though, often the catergory is listed in the catalogue.

But, like someone said, the downside to libraires being open to everyone is that idiots use them who just stick books back on the shelves at random or nick them. If you are browsing in a library and decide you don't want a book you have taken off the shelf, unless you definitely know where it goes back, the library staff would much prefer you add it to the piles waiting to be shelved. It takes a library assistant about 10 seconds to shelve it, but it would take them ages to find it if it was in the wrong place.

I miss working in libraries. When I get back to work, I think I'm going to try and get a nice library assistant job, preferably in a public library. I love the huge variety of people that come in.

I love my local library - it saves me a fortune and stops the house filling up with junk. I often browse in Borders at lunchtime, see what I fancy reading, order it online from the library, and then I get an email to say when it's arrived (usually takes 3-4 days). The library's open late on a Friday evening so I often pop in on my home from work. It's a brilliant system!

Also, I get email reminders when a book becomes due and then I can renew it online, so I never have any fines anymore! Love love love the advances in library technology in the past few years.

Another resounding 'I love libraries' here! DD got her library card at 6 weeks old and we have gone at least once a month since then. She loves going now (just turned 3). I work 4 days a week with a long commute, and its a really nice thing to do with her on my day off - mooch around choosing books, reading some and discussing them.

My mum always took me as a child, and I constantly had the full number of books I was allowed and agitated to go more often! We have friends who don't go and I feel sorry for their kids who dont have all these great books to choose from. I'm busy, but you can renew books online or over the phone, so that isn't a reason for not using a library. DH and I have a pretty good disposable income, but why spend more on books than you have to? We do buy books as well, but I find it mystifying that people without loads of money to chuck about would choose to pay money for books rather than getting them for free.

No one appears to have offered a single sensible reason on this thread for not using a library tbh - its just laziness or poor organisation/financial planning not to.

Clearly sounds like it might've been less trouble to at least try the library.

Our local library has fantastic activity mornings and the librarian is the most amazing man ever BUT the books are absolute rubbish so we don't go very often anymore.

They have very few children's books that are in a readable condition (tatty, torn, water damaged etc) and all the good/new ones get nicked and are not replaced. Everytime I have been looking for a particular book they don't have it because it was taken out 2 years ago and not returned. We found that we had exhausted their book supply completely in around a year, only visiting a couple of times a month.

The adults books are generally in a readable condition but unfortunately they do not have any worth reading. They have a massive mills and boon and fantasy collection but no textbooks (I home study) or good fiction or reference books.

Our book collection at home is probably much larger than the library and we swap books with our friends to get a bit of variety occasionally. DCs also read books at relatives houses and at preschool. I have found, despite the access they have to books, they tend to like reading their favourite book over and over anyway.

sorry lazyness?

What is lazy about me not wanting to drag my kids into a shitty library with little choice, and poor customer service to choose books to read which they have to give back.

When they have a large selection here at home, and have the school library which they both use as well.

I like buying books - I like having books in the house. As it happens I haven't bought any books for a while because of income - but there are enough books in the house for the DS's to read 2 or 3 books a day (for over a year) without repeating any.

If I buy books generally it's second hand ones (I love 2nd hand book shops - the smell of a shop full of lovely old books is just divine) so it's not like I spend a fortune when I do buy then,

We don't use our library much because it has no car park and is on a busy major road which you can't park on either. Simply poor logistics.

Oddly enough though, that is where DH and DD are right now. The school is only accepting books read over the summer for its reading challenge if they've been read as part of the scheme run over the summer by libraries. Which frankly is a bit of a PITA (we only got the note on the last day of term and were departing on hols the next day so couldn't sign up straight away - nearly put DD off wanting to read 'unauthorised' books while away!) but I'm quite glad that its forced them to go to the library.

New libraries should be built in out-of-town shopping centres - seriously, ours has a Waterstones and a Smiths, wouldn't that be a great place for a library too?

We do use our library because I think it is a good thing for ds1 to do, and I'd like to get him into the habit, but it really isn't very good. Very rarely does it have any books that we don't already have and want to read. It has a huge number of books in other languages (we are in one of the least ethnically diverse areas of Britain, so there's not much call for them). Last week, when it was wet, they actually had run out of picture books and the shelves were empty.

I use our local library every week - not just for the lovely books but for DVDs and CVs.

I save a fortune on Amazon by borrowing rather than buying stuff!

"its just laziness or poor organisation/financial planning not to"

Goodness, talk about a sweeping statement!

I am an avid reader and lived in libraries when I was a child, so I don't need preaching to about their benefits. I also have outlined above why our local library is not very good. And, as others have said, I like owning books. Since I was at school I've liked to be able to scribble my thoughts in the margin, to have a book well thumbed. A pristine book is no fun at all. DD is too young yet to do anything other than have me read the books and then tear the pages out. My nieces used to love to colour in the drawings, or draw other bits of the story in the book. Still think we should all use libraries?

Depends what you want out of a book. If you want to read it and give it back, thinking no more about it then great. If you want to read a book over and over, to really own that piece of work, then libraries aren't for you and I'd rather spend the money.

To quickly read a book and then hand it back shows no emotional attachment to that book at all and people who use libraries are devoid of emotion and a true love of reading. Is that sweeping enough for you?

LOL @ eyeballs sweeping statement .

Oh, in case anyone takes my last statement seriously, it was a deliberate sweeping statement in response to another and, of course, is ridiculous.

'So, what is the excuse for not allowing your kids access to millions of free books?'

Erm......wasn't aware I needed an excuse, really.

I don't go to the library because it's not easy to get to (too far to walk, I don't have a car most of the time and, although I like using the bus, the route there is very indirect and involves at least 2 buses- waaaay too expensive).

Also, we have plenty of books at home for us and our children to enjoy.

Also, we're very busy and don't really have time.

I do hope my excuses are good enough to get me off the hook!

PS: YABU

we live in a smal village and have a library van that calls fortnightly. The choice isn't fantastic, but you can order books online to come on the van, the staff and lovely and boys enjoy going.

there are around 100 kids at my son's school (just round the corner from where the van stops - for half an hour just after school), and I think there are 3 other families who regularly use it.

We also have a small, but more than adequate, library in the next village - 2 miles, which has good opening times and does things in both term time and the summer holidays for children.

I can't imagine not using the library - but then I have no inclination to keep the books I read.