local libraries

[Dee Sa]

In conversation today I was told that the future plan was to get rid of all the staff everywhere and use volunteers. Surely this is not true ? our library system is a great British institution, I have been using the library since a small girl when my parents and myself used to all walk to library together and I would disappear into the childrens section and they would collect me on the way out.
If we can afford to give millions away to other contries surely we can save our libraries ?

[starone]

I loved the library when I was a child. I read all the books in the children's section or nearly all and then I had to read to the librarian before she let me borrow books from the adult section. She vetted them to make sure they were suitable. When I had my children I took them to the library. They got books on my ticket because they were too young to have their own. Then the librarian got them to read to her and allowed them to have their own tickets. I could never have afforded to keep up with their avid love of books and they are still readers.

[karenmac60]

Our local authority has no plans to take on any volunteers in any of our libraries. There is a lot more to the job than stamping out books and there should always be trained/experienced staff. We are actually busier than we have been in years due to the wide range of services we offer, and the service is invaluable - especially to less well off members of the community. Gness is right though. It's always a soft target.

[237SJ]

<<Our local authority has no plans to take on any volunteers in any of our libraries> That`s good to hear - for every volunteer there is someone who loses their job.

[Psybbo]

237SJ that was my point

[gness]

And a valid one if we let it happen.

[bednobs]

being a librarian is hard!

[puzzled54]

Good point well made 237sj and sibton.

[gness]

When I had a husband, children, pets, a business and the mother I would go to the library for an hour of calm.
One evening, lost in a book in the corner of the library the lights started to go out....they were locking up.
Like an idiot I shouted and the startled staff let me out. Just think of the lovely peaceful hours I could have spent, alone in the library.

[woofgang]

councils have to make cuts somewhere.. with respect I don't think you'd find volunteers to be bin men....Yes it would be preferable to lose by natural wastage.
As I said, I have lived where the libraries are run by volunteers and it works. It does rely on there being a resource of motivated suitably educated volunteers.

[shaneystar2]

I'd be lost without my library .I've haunted libraries since I discovered Just William as a child .Lots of the smaller ones are closing though and there's been a big kerfuffle over the one at Kensal Rise .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensal_Rise_Library
I suppose councils are looking at their budgets and seeing how they can cut costs and as Karen says they are a soft target especially now people have the internet at their fingertips and books are cheap to buy on Amazon etc ..
Ours has reduced the opening hours already .I really don't see how they can be run on a volunteer basis though.
Where would the money come from for new books ? People can only read so much old stock .
If they even hinted at closing my library I'd be outside with a banner like a shot .

[karenmac60]

The thing is Shaney, the way ahead is to move with the times. Lending books is only a fraction of what we do now. We lend cds and dvds, ebooks, we have public access pcs and computing classes, smoking cessation classes, a baby clinic, rhyme times for under 3s and storytelling for 3-5s, book groups for all ages. Add to that photocopying and faxing services and other groups using the building - language and art classes, drama groups, knitting groups and loads more - they'd be hard pushed to justify closing us and there would be a huge outcry. Other authorities need to make their libraries indispensable - it's the only way to survive.

[shaneystar2]

We have quite a lot of the things you've mentioned Karen .
No knitting group yet though :)
They also do Village Screen.I went to see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel recently .Three quid for old fogies ,like me:)
Where else would you get service like that in a small town .
Our library service here in Norfolk is great and I'd be lost without it .

[woofgang]

locally to us karen there is a thriving community centre that has all that stuff in it, again run by volunteers. They have just had a lottery grant to rebuild the adjoining library which currently not volunteer run. There is also a local cinema in a different community centre, volunteers again. You do need a resource of the "right kind" of volunteer.