Do you use your library?

[CuriousMama]

I use mine all the time and I've just finished reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and have now ordered (online from my library) The Passage, by Justin Cronin and Me before you by Jojo Moyes.

I'm always there but am amazed how underused they are? Ours is only small and I'll be gutted if it closes.

No.

It is cheaper for me to buy a book second hand off Amazon than it does to go into town,park up and pay and then repeat the journey when I have read the book. Even if I get the bus or train it's still cheaper to buy.

I don't need any of the other services. I stream movies and music so I don't need to rent dvds or cds.

Personally I won't miss libaries but I do understand how relevant and important they are to people.

I can understand that iknowwho. If ours closes it'll be too expensive to go to the nearest one.

It's free for anyone to order library books here :)

seems like £1 to order a book is a bit pricey in comparison.

iknowwho, our library now lends ebooks - worth looking into for you?

Yes I thought £1 a lot.

Yes I do, we have a small library, but it's very well used. A lot of the local schools are very involved and the library hosts Poets and Writers work shops for the children. Brilliant.

I get ebooks from the library too, all for free, from home and you can't be late returning as the disappear after the 3 weeks.

I have onnly recently got into using mine properly. It is small and only opens in the afternoons which is not as practical as mornings for me so I got fed up of dragging everyone there, browsing and not finding much for myself (kids selection is very good). Now though I have discovered the online catalogue so I have all the books from the whole county at my fingertips and with one click of the request button I can have them winging their way to my local library for pick up. I'm addicted . I've been able to use it for the dcs too. This summer they have a summer reading challange on for the dcs so they are signed up to that.

Nope.

My two options are the library that is in the local secondary school 5 miles away and which you have to sign in to go to and be escorted to and from and the library bus that stops in the car park in the village on a Thursday. Usually.

I think I'll stick with my charity shop runs. 10 books for a quid.

One of the great things about moving back to an English speaking country was being able to use the library again.

And I've really fallen on my feet, 35 books at a time, order any book from any other of the city libraries for free. Open 7 days a week. Great selection in the library (and the other ones that can be ordered!). Can renew, order etc online too. it's very well used by all ages. There's even a queue outside the door some mornings which I love.

I bought something on my kindle the other night for the first time since Christmas.

I love my library and I'm slowly indoctrinating DD1 into the cult of libraries too

(we're in NZ by the way if anyone was wondering where this nirvana was...)

I use mine: in the local library 2-3 times a week with DS (admittedly sometimes just so I have somewhere warm to sit and breastfeed). Its a tiny village library which is only open 4 half-days per week. Working my way through all of the stock and it also means that I can freely borrow from the city library whenever I go into town, knowing that I can return to a local library.

We also get emails 2 days before the books are due back, gives me chance to get them renewed online (a 3 click process) or returned if someone else has dared to ordered them.

I go twice a week to our library - Saturday mornings with all the children then on Tuesday mornings DD and I go to storytime which she loves.

We are quite lucky that we can go to any of the libraries within the city or county with our card. The staff are friendly and I like it better than the uni library.

I don't see how you can have DCs and not give them the joy of a library and the ability to choose their own books.

Depends if you think the joy is the library or the book.

I love books. can't get enough of them. I go to charity shops not a library. The children choose books from the charity shops.

The joy, for me, is in the reading, not the library. I love the smell of a musty old book too

oh, and, you get to help a good cause over and over and over, because when you're done with the books (those you don't want to keep and reread forever. Got a few of those ), you donate them and someone else can buy them, and you choose some others.

I do try and use my local libraries (RB Kensington & Chelsea) but I am absolutely appalled by the way the bookstock has been run down. My local one looks practically empty in both adult and childrens. I really feel that they are deliberately running it down as the private school next door has it's eye on the building. I had a look at the history section in the big central library and it was mostly military history. I was also surprised and annoyed to see historical fiction masquerading as history books.

I have recently discoved Marylebone library (as DD goes to classes at Sylvia Young) and it is absolutely fantastic, especially for non fiction. Loads of books I actually want to read!

I also hate the way the profession of librarian has been denigrated into something that any volunteer can do. It isn't about stamping books, it is about managing information.

I too have a Kindle but in all honesty I still prefer books.

There is more choice in the library than the charity shop and you can have more variety and more in quantity each week than you would ever get in a charity shop.

Me and DH both regularly get books from our library. DH gets physical books and I download ebooks from their website. It's a brilliant resource and saves us a fortune (and lots of space).
Haven't started borrowing books for DD (2) yet because she gets very attached to her books and likes to read the same ones over and over instead of looking for new stories. When shes a bit older hopefully she'll be like my 14 yo niece who devours 10 books a month from the library :)

Yes, I use mine. DS and I probably go once a week. Certainly every fortnight. Using the online catalogue to order books is fab as I never get time to browse when I am there with him.

Ours is very well used. Lots of active retired in the area who seem to hang out in the library a lot.

They have a visiting cat too.

I remember signing up for the local library, and DP's mates laughing at me (and at him), still not sure why, apparently there is something naff and sad about libraries? They also laugh at me shopping at Lidl, so I think it is a snob thing?

could it be that?

Also books are fairly cheap, esp. second hand or amazon.

Ha! Come to my local school/library or library van and say that

I no longer borrow fiction from the library as I have an e-reader and their e books are difficult to borrow.

I do still borrow a lot of cookery books to see if they are any good before I buy them and dd2 borrows about 6 books a week. She likes a mixture of fiction and non fiction which our little village library does well.

Yes, we used to have a library bus coem to our village one a fortnight. We used that every time but they stopped it last year.

Now we travel by car to the next village or small town. I prefer to use the village one as I'm worried they will close that too.

DD in high school can borrow books from her excellent school library, but I am still liable for the fines!!

I go every week or do with the DCs so while there I skim the adult fiction - I have a list on the go of Books Out Recently That I'm too Cheap To Shell Out For( / don't have the shelf space), and if I spot one of those I pounce. I also take the list into charity shops but since our local shops charge about 3 quid for a recent paperback Ithe threshold is somewhat higher.

Most of my fiction is bought new / present / charity shop / rereads but I'd say I read about 10 books a year from the library including a few from Young Adult that I'm "testing to see if they're suitable for DD".