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!

Hmmm my only issue with libraries is the ruddy books they offer. It is quite time consuming sorting through piles of princess pink/boys are brill/all characters (even woodland creatures who are clearly not drawn as boys) are boys/girls do nothing/girls like princes crappola that I get quite bored.

We get home with a pile of books read them then throw half back on the dud/would rather burn than re-read pile. I spend my life pretending the characters are girls.

This I realise also applies to bookshops...
I have asked librarians & till jockeys but apparently they dont have a category for "not completely sexist shite"...

I'm another library fan. I discovered our local one after starting maternity leave. The opening hours aren't great if you work FT, but you can renew online, take your laptop in to use the free wireless, order specific books, DVDs, etc.

i always regret borrowing books from the library as almost without fail I forget to take them back, feel horrendously guilty and have to pay loads in fines (even the kids books are fined these days). can't be bothered

young kids books are not organised by author but shoved in those box things so you can't find anything half decent unless you sort through the whole lot

we all lose track of what books we've borrowed and where it is (usually down the side of the bunkbed)

I've got about a trillion books that are actually decent reads at home so we're pretty sorted really - I'm more of a 'quality over quantity' kinda girl

I haven't got the inclination to read dross or the time to read a good book - maybe in a few years - so libary would be wasted on me. kids are still young so happier re-reading their favourites than getting involved competitive reading.

sigh - used to love libraries but right now they just cost me money and cause me stress (obv this is actually my fault for being disorganised and busy but I like to blame the library)

someone wrote about needing to use libraries once at uni - snurk - not the students I come across - surely wikipedia tells you everything you need to know

Libraries are wonderful. Sources of inspiration. We use ours to explore books in different languages that are difficult to get hold of. I love owning books but ... there is only so much space and so much money. If a library book becomes a favourite then we buy it. In the holidays our library has had lots of activities (eg the Ballet coming to do stories). Great great places

My town borrows more books for capita from its library than any other town in Britain.

for per capita

In the past fortnight I've read Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, AS Byatt's The Children's Book, a stack of less worthy thrillers, Hensher's The Northern Clemency, that quite enjoyable new one from Jenni Mills and her previous one too...and am about to start the new Aravind Adiga. All reserved online from our local library. I've got the new Sarah Dunant waiting for me next .

I live in a rather scruffy bit of SE London. I simply couldn't afford to buy all this lot new in hardback.

I don't really understand people who 'don't have time to read', to be honest. You've got time to breathe, haven't you?

What's with month old threads being made thread of the day?

Perhaps it's because everyone has buggered off camping

I couldn't live without my library. I'm a huge reader, but I don't see any point in buying books I'll read once. If I bought every book I read there'd be no room to move in our house (not that there's much room to move in this shoebox anyway!).

The DDs love the library too. They have loads of books and love their favourites, but it's nice for them to get new books every couple of weeks too.

I think it's very odd that your friend thought it easier to drive all over the place to pick up books rather than go to the library!

Our little library is great (nowheresville in Greater London). All those with OCD who are paranoid about the dirt etc - the kids books in ours mostly all have plastic covers. My DD LOVES the library, there are toys and little tables and chairs for them to sit at. Craft days in the holiday and story and singing times for pre-schoolers. All the kids know Patsy the librarian who reads and runs a lot of the kids things - its very sweet.
It also has a good selection of current DVDs (cheaper to rent that sodding BLockbuster) and kids DVDs. I was surprised how good it was. Photocopies only 5p each too woo hoo! However I agree that for books for me - I like to own them and think Amazon is ace.

Only read the first page but (1) I love the library and (2) of those of you who don't get fines - DD has had two and she's only 10 mos!

Oh, though I do wish that whoever was in charge of buying stock in our library wasn't quite so obsessed with those romances with the author's name in gold letters on the front, or at least that they had their own section rather than just being under fiction

I can't get it together to take the books back
cant afford the fines
my bad

but low on the list of things to work on just now

Take my 15 mth ds every 3 weeks - childrens books never get fines and I can renew on line. They also have late night opening on Monday for me, and can order books from online catalogue for 60p delivery charge.

Brill and free and doesn't cause us to need even more bookshelves!

I love my library! It's a huge money saver. I used to be a complete amazon addict spending about £30 a week on books. Now I get them all for free. What is not to love!

I probably pop into the children's section about twice a week for books, CDs and DVDs or just to let the little one run around in the children's area.

Also I like the idea of teaching dd about being a curator. I mean taking care of something that does not only belong to you but to everybody. Respect for common property. And also respect for her own property. I understand that it can be difficult to wade through the princess/pink stuff but the way to get around this is to use the library by requesting/suggesting the purchase of other books. Most libraries are pretty good about this. Am definitely of the belief "use it or lose it". Had a Norwegian friend who said, "Use the stairs so that you can always use the stairs." I think that about libraries too.

I think our library service is absolutely fantastic and would happily pay extra on my council tax for it.

We live in a rural village and our local library is very small and only opens for about 4 half days a week and they do only stock a limited selection of books. What makes it fab though is that we can order any book in the whole county online, for free and they normally get it in within a few days. Sometimes there's a bit of a wait for newly released books, but it's not usually very long and there are plenty of other books to read in the meantime.

I have 4 children and the two oldest ones can easily get through 3 or 4 books a week each and I will read up to 3 a week, if we had to buy them, even second hand, it would cost us hundreds of pounds a year. We can also renew online so there's really no excuse for us to rack up large fines. It's become part of our normal Saturday morning routine to pop to the library on the way to the supermarket and I think it's a great habit for children to get into.

If our council ever tried to do away with the libraries I would fight tooth and nail, they are just such an amazing resource and all free!!

Oh yes, and on several occasions I've suggested a new book which they haven't got in stock yet and they've got it just for me!! How cool is that?!

I take my daughter to the library weekly at the moment as there is no nursery and it is something for her to do. Normally we will visit every 3/4 weeks and she loves it. I used to go as a child and so i like to take my daughter too. She enjoyes being able to pick her own books!!

All Libraries should offer the "baby book crawl" to I think under 3s. This isnt an instruction, my library told me they all do.
Get a sticker every visit, once you have 4 stickers they swap them for a certificate by leading children's illustrators. We are nearly up to certificate 5, which is all you get from our library. Also our library card for the small boy doesn't fine him for over due books or damage to them - thank goodness. No more flap books for a while, not good when just the flap is handed to you!
We love the library, if only to have alternatives to the Gruffalo! If small boy would only let me read them!

what are you all about? i cant understand why you are getting involved in her business, if she dont wanna go library thats her business, i can not believe you have gone to the extremes of posting it on here, i have to question your mentallty.get a life