Libraries

I feel guilty about not using my local library much in recent years, though this was mainly due to the fact that on the days it was open it closed at 6 and that's around the time I got home from work. Now that I'm retired I go to libraries more often - my local one (10 minutes walk away) for the monthly reading group, and DGS2's local (again a 10 minute walk) fortnightly just to get him looking at all the different books. The latter one has rhyme and story sessions, but on alternate Saturdays, when I'm not at DGS2's. My local is only open three and a half days a week and doesn't seem to offer anything for children, or for adults apart from the reading group. Liz46's coffee mornings and craft sessions would be good, and I think would be well attended.

The library where I took my grandaughter for over a year to Rhyme Time and stories has closed, referring us to the larger one a mile further away, on the first floor of a very modern, impersonal building, reached by cutting through a multi-storey car park. No more walking through autumn leaves, looking for spiders, waving to our shadows in the sunshine, recognising landmarks she knows. It's a quick journey in the car to get to a room with background disturbances, fed up librarians and no volunteers sharing their enthusiasm, knowledge of nursery rhymes long forgotten and love for their role in a library where they were appreciated. So many parents and grandparents who wanted to continue taking their children have dropped off and numbers won't be enough to sustain the sessions begore long. Then, we'll be told there's no interest! Why is it always about quantity and not value? Sad.

Our local library (about a mile away) was excellent until recently. It was open five days a week and one of the librarians organised many activities such as coffee mornings, book clubs and a knitting group. The products from the knitting group would be sold at the coffee mornings and all the proceeds were sent to the local prem. baby unit.

It is now open two and a half days a week. The usual staff have disappeared and the friendly atmosphere has gone.