What does your local library mean to you?

Two years ago our branch of the county library closed, only to reopen 4 weeks later as a Community Library.

Run entirely by volunteers (about 70 in total) the opening hours have been extended, classes in genealogy and how to use the internet have been introduced, a craft group and a writers group meet there, there's a weekly session for babies and toddlers, an information hub has been established, school visits take place regularly, the book stock has improved, and as well as books they stock magazines and jigsaws.

Libraries are about a lot more than just books.

It's still part of the county library but has a lot more a autonomy and can offer the community more as it truly is part of that community. Lots more ideas for events and activities are under discussion. It is becoming a real hub for the community.

I feel really sad when I see towns and villages petitioning for authorities to spare their libraries. I can understand that they must find cost savings somewhere. Community libraries are becoming a real success story and I can only recommend that the petitioners formulate a voluntary scheme to offer in place of closure.

I love our library andwas filmed and on the news sayinh how devastated I would be if it were to close. Fortunately it stayed open, BUT largely I have to say because of the large eastern european population who apparently possess neither computers nor kindles. There are lots of compters and they are always busy, occasionally with schoolkids but far more frequently with foreign workers looking things up and contacting home. The childrens section is only really busy on days when they is storytime, in fact the whole library closes for them on Wednesday afternoons, which was a backlash against the oldies snoozing in the warm complaining about the noise they made!

I used to be there every week, taking out my 14 books, but I too use a kindle app now and buy from their 99p daily deals, so only use the library perhaps once or twice a month to obtain books or order books that are not on offer.

Several past libraries I have known reinvented themselves as all-round entertainment centres, and I hated it. They shrunk the book areas and squeezed them in upstairs, it made me feel quite miserable.

Our library probably like many others has gone over to machines for booking books in and out. When the machines throws a wobbly or the 'computers have gone down again' the librarian cluck around somewhat helplessly.
It seems that renewing books is not straight forward either - unless you go on line.
Last week I asked what had happened to the books in the separate reference library which has been disbanded and about to be demolished. Many were available for loan and id found them jolly useful for particular projects. No one knew! One librarian said that the dispersal of books had occurred before her time at the library.
I enjoy biographies but in our small library the emphasis is mainly on c listers
Sadly libraries aren't what they were and if you want reference books then tough cookie
I do visit for fiction occasionally but tend to use charities shops.
I did recently complete a survey on library use and thought it could become more of a community hub. We shall see

I must say I don't read books much any more.
I do take people to hospital etc and often when there is a library nearby I go in and use the internet.
I did not know about this thread but I went in to a local library today ( not by where I live ) so I suppose I have done my bit for National libraries Day.

Mary

My local library is an award winning library. It was rebuilt a number of years ago and it was then they added a pizza restaurant, coffee shop and more. I know from someone who was working on moving the books back onto the new shelves that many hundreds of books were unable to be put back into circulation as there wasn't enough shelf space.
I visit with the grandchildren but I'm lucky to be able to afford to buy any new titles I'd like to read. I have reserved library books but popular and new titles can find you in a very long queue.

I like the idea of a coffee shop where you can sit with a book or mag and have a drink and perhaps a biscuit. A small art gallery could also be included. A small garden centre has a cafe which also displays pictures and I do enjoy taking myself off there on occasion for a break. Do councils have the imagination though?

I don't like the way our library has been rearranged as it seems to have been dumbed down. Instead of having fiction books shelved in author order, they are now separated into categories, Crime, Westerns, Mysteries, Romance etc. There is no subject index on the counter, where you look up the Dewey number for what you wanted and find it immediately. Now we have Travel, Health and Beauty, Gardening, Cookery. An autobiography of a doctor was not placed under Biographies but in the Health section for some strange reason. It is harder to find what you are looking for.
There are hardly any staff around- there are machines to check the books in and out, no friendly welcome any more.
They also have huge amount of books for sale, mostly nearly new, which doesn't seem the best way of managing resources, this loses them money.
I don't like it, sorry. Glad I have plenty of books at home to read. As a person who has always loved libraries and used to work in one, I am disappointed.

Our library:

www.library.ipswich.qld.gov.au/using_the_library/how-do-i/

features in my life regularly. We can borrow books, DVDs, CDs, talking books, magazines etc. Our U3A writers' groups uses one of their study rooms every week, free of charge. They provide an outdoor rehearsal area if we need it for our performance group. They have a 'wet area' for art classes. They put on kids' activities during the school hols. There are banks and banks of computers we can use for an hour at a time, if we are members, free. And there are little free courses all the time, on a variety of things. I might do the photo editing one. They were one of the world's first in going online, with Ipswich Global Infolinks in 1995.

I love the place - it is friendly and has so much that we need. There is a library cafe too, where we go after our U3A meeting. Or we can bring our coffee into the library and relax on their easy chairs and read the papers.

So that's why I like it.

My first library was Mirfield Library in West Yorkshire: it has survived the cuts. That was where I learned to love Charles Dickens: I'd read all the kids' books, so the lovely librarian gave me an adult card and steered me to Oliver Twist

I also loved the Queensland University library when i was studying. Come to think of it, I miss the place.

My last job was for a library supplier of serials. But it got bought out by corporate raiders from Chicago, and 50 people lost their jobs.

Unfortunately as I was on holiday, I missed the National Libraries Day on Saturday. I am a passionate supporter of my local library which is in temporary accommodation whilst a new one is being built, along with other new premises for our town. The library assistants do an amazing job in a restricted area and are always happy and smiling, and ready and willing to assist with anything. For the last 3 years I have volunteered during the school summer holidays to help with the national Children's Reading Challenge and am made to feel part of the team. I love my role and being made to feel wanted and useful, and interacting with the children, it is so rewarding. There are all the facilities that other libraries mentioned have. According to Bristol library, which celebrated 400 years of service in December 2013, originally books were considered so valuable that they were chained to the walls. With modern devices of today, their value has sadly declined but I still believe there is nothing quite like a "real" book.