Library Closures

I've reported the penultimate post!

Our library is open unti 7pm most evenings and even opens on Sunday.It is now a "hub"and provides many services.It is warm and very welcoming and very well supported with keep fit classes,computer classes and now a cafe due to open.I often order books on line and am first to read many.
I have loved and used libraries since childhood and feel sorry to learn that so many are threatened with closure.

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We are very lucky to have an excellent library situated in the main shopping area,plus a small one a few minutes walk away from me and another small one near another residential area.The main library was refurbished not long ago,It still has paid staff and is used for several meetings such as U3A. There are several computers upstairs in addition to many ‘educational’ books for studying many different subjects.
Best of all there is a small seating area downstairs with a coffee machine. I can have a coffee in there and watch out for the bus to get home as the stop is visible from there.

In South Buckinghamshire the library service was cut and libraries are now eachb run by one paid professional and volunteers. I regularly visit four of the branches and they are excellent. I can order books online and drop them back at any branch. I can attest that a first class service can be run on a shoestring.

Our local small library was being closed a couple of years ago but is now kept going entirely by volunteers, very successfully. There is one ex-librarian in charge, so we are lucky to have her expertise.
The library in the nearest big town was completely refurbished and updated only a couple of years ago, so hopefully they are not intending to close it.... fingers crossed. As a lifelong library member I feel very sad that so many more closures are apparently being planned.

A new library was built here in the early seventies. Now a new one has been built, two late openings untill 8.00pm every week. The local history group, town councillors , book club, poetry club, meet there, advice given for everything going on in the town. School holidays there are childrens clubs, and now a coffee shop. A mobile library for the sheltered housing areas and the surrounding villages, we can also have books on our computers.

I would certainly volunteer at my library if the need ever arose.I love it in there and go every week choosing one week loan books which are picked as the 'must' read. This way it ensures footfall as instead of picking up several books and only visiting every three or four weeks the library is usually quite busy, especially Saturdays and school holidays. They also have events for the children in school holidays and it is all free.I have often thought a small cafe would benefit the llibrary as i have noticed there are 'regulars' who sit in there reading newspapers and magazines and using the computers. Ours is old and built in the 1920's so has a timeless feel to it, i would be heartbroken if it ever closed.

my local library in brackley is under threat of closure , mind you Northants county council have got serious debt problems, 133m unexplained spending of public money on hospitality and other things.
There is an e-petition out as well as to library's.
Mick

Now that's being creative, well done al of you in Jesmond!

I also live in France, where local services, such as libraries, are valued. However, they do depend on volunteers. The two libraries I visit have been rejuvenated by the enthusiasm of English and French residents, mainly retired, who give their time willingly. Parisot have even established a Literary Festival (Festilitt) which attracts famous French and English authors every year. (Kate Moss, Helen Dunmore, Carys Bray) I do understand the struggle. Second hand books, Kindle, ordering from the internet because it's easy to do are only some of the competition libraries are up against. We need to be creative and also be prepared to volunteer.

Oakleaf I'm just realising you think I meant 24/7. The local library is open unmanned in the evening until 8pm. Presumably a caretaker then locks up. Sorry, my usual not taking my time!

The County Council in my area are planning to close libraries. We, as a community are hoping to run the library with volunteers. Closures are expected next month but the county council are still not saying when and if the community libraries can open. I volunteer taking books to the housebound each month and the people we visit are extremely worried that this free service will stop. The closures would cause hardship to so many people. Libraries do so much more than lend books.

Our local library closed some three and a half years ago.

The nearest library is now several miles away (I know that some more rural Gransnetters will collapse laughing at the small distance involved) but... with the various reduction in opening hours, it is difficult to use.

Additionally there are only a handful of parking spaces and there are yellow lines surrounding the site, so driving becomes a non-starter.

Carrying books on the bus can sometimes be difficult so..... I don't use this branch.

My guess is that our local authority (which is really cash-strapped) wants other libraries to close, too.....

Rosie have pm'd you.

Our local Library was closed by the council in June 2013 and we reopened as a volunteer-run community library in September 2013, so we are 5 years old, and very successful. We did not take anyone's job from them, because it was going to close, come what may. There are 500 community run libraries in the UK. The running costs are approx. £30,000p.a. and this is raised by a combination of voluntary subscriptions, monies raised by talks and classes and room hire, coffee machine, photocopying and printing etc. There are 50 volunteers, in a variety of roles from front-of-house to building maintenance. We have made significant improvements to the building through grants of various sorts. We know our stock because a committee of volunteers chooses the new titles (£5000pa budget). The library has become the secular hub of the community and a lovely place to be, for families, for senior citizens and for students. Why shouldn't communities run small local libraries? For myself, I have worked as a volunteer from when we opened. I have made lots of friends and I like providing a service to the public. Of course, this is a university suburb of a city, so we have lots of retired academics and professionals prepared to give their time and expertise. However, we have helped some other libraries set up in areas with less 'social capital' and I think it is perfectly possible to do so. It provides a positive focus for the community. I would say, get some good people together, form a steering group and go for it! Have a look at our website jesmondlibrary.org to get a flavour of what goes on.

Annep, I also live in NI and really like the sound of the ‘open after hours’ library. Can you tell me where it is as I love the library but it’s so hard to get parked at ours that I never go? Thanks.

Good point Oakleaf. I must enquire. I do know its popular. I borrowed a book at another nearby library this week ( I am close to two) and was shown how to collect orders, borrow books, return all by myself. I do prefer the old days when interaction was part of it. Its like self service shopping.
I read a lot on Kindle as its convenient but like Fennel I've decided to use the library more. Its a lovely quiet place to read with no distractions and we have a coffee machine now.

I don't wish anyone to take my comment about volunteers running Libraries in the wrong way.
Maybe small, village Libraries can be run perfectly well by non qualified volunteers, but in a Library with book issues in excess of 2,500 per day, it quite simply would not work!
The Libraries our Council has seen fit to decimate are not small, quiet, village places, but busy, thriving hubs, which were all open for at least forty five hours per week. Now most are open for less than fifteen hours, with staff being moved around between branches.
Even before I retired, the staff had, for many years, been putting our own money towards craft and office supplies, as the Council simply wouldn't provide what we needed. Christmas decorations were always things donated by the staff. An old bookcase from our house is still in use in the branch I ran, the comfy chairs in a quiet corner came from another member of staff when she bought a new suite, the rug in front of them used to be in my lounge. Our staff went far above and beyond what should be expected in our attempts to keep our Library functioning properly as a welcoming place.
Now, of course, there are no permanent staff based there, so the feeling of 'community' has gone. Readers are no longer addressed by name as they walk through the doors, no staff are there often enough to learn their names!
As I said in my first post, don't get me started!

Our village library was closed by the council many years ago. Since then it has been run independently and is open for 4 sessions a week all staffed by volunteers. We can still request books from the main (council run library) and return books that we have borrowed elsewhere. The village is increasing in size and there seems to have been an increase in the number of library users.

Libraries in Sussex have been under threat and several are set to close. In one village the volunteers are taking over the library service as is the case in so many other places. Our libraries are all very busy hubs for other things, as well as loaning books, they run wriggle and rhyme groups for parents and babies/toddlers, Italian and Spanish Classes, Saturday Lego club, craft events, a regular book club and a opera classes! These are a few of those I can remember! Despite this popularity libraries are threatened with closure both in Sussex and also in Dorset where a friend (a head librarian of over 20 years experience) is now being threatened with redundancy!
Unfortunately all local authorities are struggling with a massive financial deficit now that central Government is cutting their grants year on year, and plan to make no grants at all by 2020! I can see how councils are between a rock and a hard place; they have some core services that they are legally obliged to provide such as social care and now the obligations under the homelessness prevention act and not enough money to do so. They are not allowed to raise council tax very much due to caps imposed by the Thatcher Government and are very limited as to where they find the money. I do not envy any of them here in England be they Tory, Labour, Lib Dem or Green.

Barmyoldbat

That sounds ideal in small communities but, the cost of financing and cleaning the toilets (elec/water) servicing the coffee machine and the likelihood of undesirables using unmanned facilites without full cctv coverage, would not be a feasible proposition in large towns and cities.

Libraries in Cardiff have either been closed or changed into hubs with other activities. The latter do not provide the same library services and there is no librarian.

However the one that I now use is quite good and placing books on hold, there is 24/7 internet access, usually ensures that they arrive to be collected at some future time. But there is a dearth of available books, both new and old, the latter having been removed from shelves and we do not know where they are, or simply never returned and it annoys me intensely that there is no attempt to get them returned.

The selection of new books is far fewer than we used to see. Some authors appear to be completely ignored. Sad days, but we still have our large central library although that is also used for many other things. Compters are available for booking to use.

Going to the library is a lovely afternoon out for me and dgd in the school holidays. She gets to choose her books and play with other small users. She knows the staff and i choose some books too. Its such a shame if they close ours