Celebrate National Libraries Day (6 Feb) Tell us what your library mean to you

[RachelMumsnet]

It's National Libraries Day on Saturday 6 February and the Mumsnet Books team wants to show our support as we think they're worth celebrating. Tell us what your local library means to you by Sunday 7 February and you'll be entered into a draw to win a bundle of great books for you and your dcs. Winner will be announced next Monday (8 Feb).

I'd be absolutely lost without the library, and go most weeks. It's such a shame that so many are closing, and that they are generally so poorly funded. I'd be happy to pay a subscription fee, or even pay per loan - it would still save me loads of money over the year!

I use both my village library and the larger town library all the time, it's one if my 3yo favourite things to do - Library Then 'Costa Costa' for lunch. For me, it's always been a place to call in, to find a book, use a pc, get information or simply some peace and quiet. I organised membership for ds when he was a baby and we go every other Sunday. The main town library has a small play area, reading nooks, sofas and colouring stuff as well as loads of activities through the year. Ds nursery teacher told me last week that he loves stories more than anything and he talks about his library visits. I'm keen that he continues to love and use the library as he grows up, it's such an important part of the community.

I do feel that my council has done fairly well to keep our village libraries open despite funding cuts. The smaller ones are on part time hours and largely staffed by volunteers but at least they're still open. They do make a huge effort to be inclusive. Children are very welcome, there are events, job clubs, speakers etc. I love my library

About ten years ago our high income dropped like a stone. It was a scary time and dh was very ill but at a difficult moment I suddenly thought 'well, I live somewhere where I know my child will be educated, we have a doctor and hospital services, and I know I will be able to get books'. If you have an education service, a health service and a library service, you have a good life. That's how essential libraries are to me.

One of the things I love best about libraries is the serendipitous discovery of things you didn't even know you were looking for.

I have to travel a lot for work and I also find them really useful for guidebooks to random European cities that I will probably not go to more than once.

Libraries were my "safe place" as a child, and I still dream about the one I used to go to then!

My local library is brilliant. I borrow huge numbers of books for my children (2yo and 4 mths). It's allowed me to try out lots of different types to find out what they like and what sort of books are appropriate for their age (having initially had no idea). Without it I would probably have spent a fortune buying books and ended up buying ones that I liked but they weren't interested in.

It's also been great for getting books etc. for help with parenting. I borrowed the Sing and Sign DVDs for use with my elder and we learnt makaton sign language together, allowing her to communicate with me before she could say the words.

I really value the volunteers and staff who work there and hope it will stay open despite all the cuts

I've always loved libraries but since I've become ill they've been a lifesaver for me - mainly because of their online service which is ironic as the library building offers so much in its self - it's just that I can't access it in person atm.

I can order and renew books online for no charge - I also love the zinio app magazine service. I'm on a v limited budget and pretty much housebound most of the time so this helps me to save money and gives me something to do with the endless hours of nothingness.

I do miss going for a browse and seeing what's on the shelves but I hope that libraries are still physically there in future.

Visit your library today, they'll have load of stuff going on. Ours has!

Our library is a welcoming sanctuary of calm for my children. At the baby stage we attended library staff rhyme time and a privately run music group and now regularly go in to get library books. Although we have lots of books at home courtesy of kind relatives both children see this as an opportunity to have lots of different books. The craft sessions run during the holidays were brilliant last summer and helped stretch our summer fun budget as they were all free.

Our library staff are brilliant - always friendly and constantly change the displays so there is often something new to look at.

Our village library is a lifeline for many people, but sadly is one of many at risk of closure. So I'm part of a small team campaigning to keep it open.

The library is a hub of activities - be it toddler time, knit and natter, people researching on the computers, reading the paper or doing a jigsaw.

As a young mum it was a lifeline when I was on maternity and we are in weekly borrowing children's books.

I am currently on sick leave from my job - at my local library!
We have worked so hard over the past year organising for this day.
We put on lots of free events and managed to get 4 famous(ish!) authors in to give free talks throughout the day.
I LOVE my job, the atmosphrere, the readers and the people I work with,
It means so much to me to be working in an environment where people care.
We care about our books, our building and giving everyone who walks through the doors the service they require. This is despite low pay, cuts in funding, constant restructure and threatened redundancies.

I am GUTTED I couldn't be at work today!

From young child to an adult I have always been a regular visitor to libraries.
But in recent years I didn't go as often, life too busy etc.
However my New Years resolution was to read more and last week I took my gran to her local library and as soon as I walked in I remembered quite how much I love a library.

My Gran enjoyed it very much as did I - we will be regular visitors from now on.
That's quite fitting I feel as she would always take me as a child and now she's nearly 90 with dementia it's my turn to look after her and introduce her to the wonders the library holds.

I love our library because it saves me a fortune on buying rainbow fairies books .

Seriously though, I've always made a weekly trip to the library with DD first for baby rhyme time then for story hour when she was older and now she is learning to read independently she is amazed at all these books she can choose from. I really hope she grows up with a love of reading.

I was just thinking about how much I love my tiny local library and then this thread popped up!

My little local library always gets a variety of little-known, edgy, fantastic books in along with the more popular stuff -I go every week with DD (2) and we both love to just dive in and see what we come out with. It gives me such pleasure.

Without libraries the world would be a much crapper place.

I live in a city so have quite a few 'local' libraries and I cherish every single one of them.
They run bounce n rhyme sessions and toddlers' tales, which are a godsend when you're at home with small folk. I have read so many different to my usual, books that I may not have bought in case they were shit.
They introduced me to Thomas Hardy and for that I will be forever grateful.
My dc (3, 9 & 12) all love going to the library, the kids section at one of my local's is brilliant.

Libraries have played a massive role in my life and continue to do so now I'm a mum too. My earliest childhood memories are of choosing books - the very hungry caterpillar, ant and bee etc. Then when I got older, learning to love reading, help with homework and a place to relax and enjoy the peace and quiet. We were lucky enough to live near a wonderful newly opened library when my son now eight was born. And it was open Sunday's too. Amazing - and coincided with the self serve machines. We still had help
from kind staff - and enjoyed Rhymetime sessions and all those extra things that libraries do so well. I'm so thrilled and proud that my children love the library too - where we are now we also have a fantastic library, the staff are fantastic. Being a stay at home mum it's really great that we have somewhere to go and also read new books whereas with my son I still has a larger disposable budget to buy them. Reserving library books for me and the children still gives me that new book smell buzz though :-) long live libraries!

Today, most people in my area celebrated National Libraries Day by not going to the library. Which was OK because none of the people working in the library knew it was a special day either (except me because I saw this thread yesterday).

The library is a special place for me. As soon as I could cross the main road, I'd take myself off to the library and I actually read every book in the children's section.
Now I take my daughter and we share our love of books on a Friday after school before going to the ice cream parlour. Special times.

When I was little we had no money to waste, my mother's words, on books. Then my friends mum took me to the library and got me a library card, it was heaven. In my turn I took my younger brothers and then my children. Now I am lucky enough to have started a job in an office just above a library. I went in every day last week.

My library is my santaury,its been my saviour.
No longer those quiet hushing grey rooms u usually think of for librarys.ours is a community hub.teens come,all shapes,colour,personalities have come used and loved it.
I fear now because they r talkin of closing due to cuts.it will devastate our community

Our local library is fab,dcs love using it, while to me it is a chance to read as much as possible on a budget. The idea of having a stack ofbooks to read in bed is heaven!

However mybig library love at the moment is the dcs school library... itwas previously a bit unloved and underused... we are spending lots of time classifying all the nonfiction, sorting all the fiction, new storage for picture books, making fun displays and trying to put a scannig system in place so it can be used just like a public library. It is a joy to help out in it and knowing it is for such a good cause, to get the pupils more interested in using it and reading makes it all the more worthwhile.

(although I think some one had got a bit freaked out by reading Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book and hidden it downsome shelving!)

I live in a village and use our mobile library service. Dd thinks it's great fun to go in the library bus!
My nearest library doesn't have the best choice of books for me, but I can order from their website and have the books I want to read delivered to my local library (from other libraries across the county).
I have a kindle and do use it, but nothing beats a real book and I always have library books on the go. Also, it's great to chat to our librarian, he gives good recommendations and it's great to have book chats with another reader.

I have always loved libraries - it was such a treat as a child to find a new book. Even as a grown up I have such a feeling of happiness if I come out of the library with a book I know i'm going to enjoy. Realistically I can only read books from the library or charity shops, my budget at the moment doesn't stretch to buying new books.
Unfortunately it looks like my local council will be reducing the opening hours of all the libraries round here. I know it's better than closures but it makes me sad.

If buying books online, I always try to by used, and always look for the "ex-library book " description - it's a kind of hobby.

I love the surprise of finding out which library the book has been in. I have books from libraries all over the British Isles and America.

I also join libraries when I'm in different places, so I have a collection of local authority library cards. It's something I make a point of doing when I go anywhere, again a kind of hobby.

I agree with all the above but at the risk of being held wholly responsible for the closure of these much loved libraries, I am probably one of the reasons they are shutting - along with modern technology. I lived in the library as a child ( am now in my 50s) and when the dcs came along, took them pretty much every weekend to our local one 5 miles away for bags of lovely books. Fast forward to now. My adult DDS haven't been in any library except the university ones for years. They either buy books, or download them or swap with friends/raid charity shops. I cant remember the last time I was in a library, or need to be. 14 year old Ds doesn't want to go to one - "What for?" -and only uses the school one for somewhere warm to sit while he waits for the bus! My elderly mother depends on the !library and visits often, my brother used to so that he could use the WiFi bit now he is connected, he doesn't bother. We are not illiterate book haters, far from it. All graduates, all keen readers in our spare time and, ironically, my sister was an archivist with the British Library in London for many years so we understand the importance, but the library doesn't fill any need for our demographic any more. I hope they stay open for everyone else's sakr though but personally, its not som ething which features in our life any more.

We love our local library! My sons love going and choosing their books.

Besides the obvious, fostering a love of books, i think visiting the library has help make them more confident. They walk up to staff to ask for books they want, take part in storytelling and singalongs, and just enjoy the community atmosphere.

Libraries still play a vital role in our lives.