How unusual is it for a school to have a library now?

[TunipTheUnconquerable]

The comprehensive my dcs will go to in a few years recently got rid of its library. It didn't just rename the room (which is what I assumed when I first heard it), it actually got rid of the books.

How normal is this? Are school libraries basically a thing of the past apart from in private schools and grammars?

Just to add, you say it is a few years before your children will be going there. Maybe now is the time to start campaigning/hassling them to get a library back. The recent Ofsted reports are putting far more emphasis on reading for pleasure now, so it would be in their interest. See the Moving English Forward report here:

Ours doesn't have a library.

But no one was actually going there beforehand, it certainly wasn't cool to go there and people hung out around the ict room if they needed to do some work.

My school has an amazing library, built two years ago, with half being the quiet section and containing about 60 computers plus desks, non fiction and reference books. The other half has lots of seating in arcs in front of a huge screen for film presentations or speakers and loads of fiction books and study areas. Little booths have seats for three of four and a flat screen tv for watching videos with headphones.

It stays open until 7pm and is open on Saturdays. The sixth form must work in there in their free periods, it is also used loads at break, lunch and after school. It lends DVDs as well as books and has board games for students to borrow to use in the library. Parents are allowed to borrow from the library and there is even a big section of parenting books.

It has a sixth form/staff/parents cafe attached, which is a bit like Starbucks. I spend far too much money there.

Wow Cerisier, that sounds amazing.

I'm in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It's not an academy. Thing is, I can imagine the old library was not much used and I can see why they decided they needed an 'independent learning centre' with 100 computers, but learning from books just seems such a core skill.