Nowadays What Are Libraries For?

[ravensocks]

I've got a computer but no printer, so if I need to print a letter or a form I go to my local library, use the computer there and pay 15p to have whatever I want printed.
I also still borrow books -those old fashioned papery things -to read on the bus etc.

Quite a few of us OAP's still do it.

Also us young(ish) pups, I don't have a printer either and the local library has come in very useful at times.

 

[Ladyloafer]

i use my local library for those old fashioned things called 'books'. currently reading; 'this is going to hurt' by adam kay. most amusing. however i do think the selection of books it pretty poor. if you want crime novels, gardening books, and 'mum-lit- you're sorted. anything else, meh. the county system has a reasonable selection but it costs £1.25 to reserve a book. i can currently buy new books in bookshop chainstore 'the works' for £1.

they also have dvd's but that is a pretty poor selection too. there are half a dozen or so computers, but you have limited time on them. a few weeks ago i was having wifi woes at home and needed to do some urgent work. i hauled my laptop down there to use the free wifi. it cut me off after 2 hours, saying i'd exceeded my limit. seriously library!

they also run lots of kids clubs, computer literacy classes, language access and act as a hub for age uk. thats what libraries are- community hubs. and this is not new, its what they always were, expect the wise librarian helped you with finding information and training in books, now they help you access it online.

my sisters local library is amazing. its part council funded part voluntary/charity. its open 7 days a week, till late in the evening. has loads of computers- go there after school and theres loads of kids playing minecraft! its has an excellent selection of books, and will pretty much buy in anything requested if they think at least a couple of other people will read it. it has loads of dvds including classic and foreign language films. they run loads of classes there, and best of all they have a Library of things. need to borrow a strimmer, or sewing machine? go to the library! (i have just noticed on that website all the items have names 'doris the drill', so thats just odd).

 

[His Extremely DeLux Self]

three months late, but here goes....

I love libraries, and especially the San Francisco Public Library.

I am a person who makes extensive use of his library card.

Books. You can go there and check out all the books you want, free for nothing. Take them home and use them and enjoy them just like they were yours (heck, they are yours for all intents and purposes, for the length of time you have checked them out), then you take them back so other people can use them too. Because they're ours! They belong to us all! Being a somewhat poor person, who shares distinctly cramped living quarters with pets and partner, both the getting-to-have-the-materials aspect and the bringing-them-back aspect appeal to me.

Graphic novels too--my library is very pro-graphic-novels, and usually has a fine selection of them from the excellent to (what I regard as) the dreck.

And DVD movies and music disks, samey-same: they're yours to take home and enjoy for 3 weeks, free for nothing. You can even copy them onto your home computer if you want to (but don't tell anyone if you do).

My library provides me and my significant other with realms and realms of freely available entertainment and education. Poverty requires the consolations of music, literature and art, and the SFPL treats us right in that regard.

Plus they have public access online computers and printers that anyone can use.

I've been to some good readings there too, and they have display space for all sorts of mini museum sort of exhibits. All free!

Across the Bay, in Berkeley, at least one branch of their public library loans out tools to borrowers--hammers, saws, shovels, post hole diggers, hand drills and like that. Which is a fine thing, I think.

There's a lot more stuff the SFPL, and by extension other big public libraries, does for people too, that I don't access and so haven't explored.

That's what libraries are for!

 

[feinman]

three months late, but here goes....

I love libraries, and especially the San Francisco Public Library.

I am a person who makes extensive use of his library card.

Books. You can go there and check out all the books you want, free for nothing. Take them home and use them and enjoy them just like they were yours (heck, they are yours for all intents and purposes, for the length of time you have checked them out), then you take them back so other people can use them too. Because they're ours! They belong to us all! Being a somewhat poor person, who shares distinctly cramped living quarters with pets and partner, both the getting-to-have-the-materials aspect and the bringing-them-back aspect appeal to me.

Graphic novels too--my library is very pro-graphic-novels, and usually has a fine selection of them from the excellent to (what I regard as) the dreck.

And DVD movies and music disks, samey-same: they're yours to take home and enjoy for 3 weeks, free for nothing. You can even copy them onto your home computer if you want to (but don't tell anyone if you do).

My library provides me and my significant other with realms and realms of freely available entertainment and education. Poverty requires the consolations of music, literature and art, and the SFPL treats us right in that regard.

Plus they have public access online computers and printers that anyone can use.

I've been to some good readings there too, and they have display space for all sorts of mini museum sort of exhibits. All free!

Across the Bay, in Berkeley, at least one branch of their public library loans out tools to borrowers--hammers, saws, shovels, post hole diggers, hand drills and like that. Which is a fine thing, I think.

There's a lot more stuff the SFPL, and by extension other big public libraries, does for people too, that I don't access and so haven't explored.

That's what libraries are for!

We've started a Library of Things where I work, too:
https://lincc.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/lincc/?rm=LIBRARY+OF+THI1|||1|||0|||true

 

[JamesWhitehead]

I had good reason to love mine, when my home access to the internet was cut-off. I am fortunate to live within a mile of my local library.

The book-collection is limited but there is a good local-history selection and they do mini-exhibitions of local stuff.

Their free wi-fi hates my Samsung tablet but I was soon directed to their bank of desk-tops, free to use by anyone with a library membership.

I was glad to see plenty of young people in the library, enjoying the attractive books and checking them out.

Libraries have certainly shrunk but long may they stay open.

 

[Nemo]

And. of course, modern youth gets it's info from other sources. And it will be more up to date.

And thus the info is more deleletable & deniable (i.e.:- "oh sorry, that was just a mistake by our new trainee etc etc").

 

[INT21]

A certain irony in that last post.

 

[feinman]

I had good reason to love mine, when my home access to the internet was cut-off. I am fortunate to live within a mile of my local library.

The book-collection is limited but there is a good local-history selection and they do mini-exhibitions of local stuff.

Their free wi-fi hates my Samsung tablet but I was soon directed to their bank of desk-tops, free to use by anyone with a library membership.

I was glad to see plenty of young people in the library, enjoying the attractive books and checking them out.

Libraries have certainly shrunk but long may they stay open.

I feared for libraries for a while, but believe it or not statistics have rebounded!! Whenever there is a recession, the library becomes very valuable indeed.

 

[feinman]

And thus the info is more deleletable & deniable (i.e.:- "oh sorry, that was just a mistake by our new trainee etc etc").

But they still love libraries and are using them! Amazing:
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-ta...eration-of-americans-to-use-public-libraries/

 

[Indrid Drood]

A black and white laser is now very cheap (I bought one for £90). The toner never goes off, so you don't have the same issues as with an inkjet.

I bought one for that same reason. What I wasn't aware of, though, and learned the hard way, is that if you do not use it for a considerable length of time (a year, say), something will happen inside the printer that will cause horizontal lines to appear on all your prints. (Apparently this cannot be remedied without changing the drum.) Not a huge deal in my case, since I rarely print anything and then usually only for my personal use, but annoying nonetheless...

 

[Mythopoeika]

I bought one for that same reason. What I wasn't aware of, though, and learned the hard way, is that if you do not use it for a considerable length of time (a year, say), something will happen inside the printer that will cause horizontal lines to appear on all your prints. (Apparently this cannot be remedied without changing the drum.) Not a huge deal in my case, since I rarely print anything and then usually only for my personal use, but annoying nonetheless...

Yeah, that's happening with my laser printer too. It's possible that water vapour gets in and cakes the toner.

 

[Indrid Drood]

Yeah, that's happening with my laser printer too. It's possible that water vapour gets in and cakes the toner.

Well, now I feel a little less alone in my plight with these unneeded lines!

 

[Mythopoeika]

My first experience of that was back in the late 80s, with Epson's first laser printer. It was so annoying.

 

[Indrid Drood]

You would think that the manufacturers would ship the item with a warning to the effect that lengthy periods of disuse might result in damage to printer components and consequently in substandard prints, but no. Better just to have the consumer toss it into a landfill and buy the latest model.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

Is this caused by the toner being in contact with the drum? In which case, it might be possible to avoid the problem by removing the toner-unit, if you know the printer will be idle for a period. Mainly these things are not planned, I appreciate.

In general, I have found laser printing a lot more economical than ink-jet!

 

[INT21]

And our town library, for the first time I can remember, was on strike for three days last week.

 

[Indrid Drood]

Is this caused by the toner being in contact with the drum? In which case, it might be possible to avoid the problem by removing the toner-unit, if you know the printer will be idle for a period. Mainly these things are not planned, I appreciate.

Yes, something to do with toner/drum interaction. It might be more convenient to simply print out a few pages regularly than to remove the drum entirely. In my case, I don't keep the printer near my computer setup at all (it is, in fact, kept in a storage room due to space/aesthetic considerations), so even printing out a few pages is something of a chore.

In general, I have found laser printing a lot more economical than ink-jet!

Oh, for sure! Unless you absolutely need the colour, it's the only way to go.

 

[littlebrowndragon]

My local library was a godsend to me when I was poor. I used it for entertainment, to keep warm, as a place to go when I could not afford to go anywhere else e.g. to a café for a coffee etc.

When money was in short supply, for entertainment I spent a lot of time using library computers and, of course, borrowing books. I was borrowing so many books that I was running out of new books to read, this since library turnarounds were somewhat slow. However, help was at hand. Previously, inter-library loans cost something like £1 which I couldn't afford. But then the powers that be decided to scrap these charges and so I was able to request all sorts of books free of charge. I also borrowed dvds from the library, because I could not afford to buy except from charity shops where often the dvds were too scratched to play well. The library was a godsend to me then.


Unfortunately, our local libraries have been refurbished. This means that they have been redecorated. The effect of this was that they lost maybe half of their books. I don't know where all the books have gone to. They have also cut their opening hours.

All these changes affect poor folks the worst. And it is, I think, poor folks who are most in need of amenities such as libraries. That was my experience at least.

 

[sdoig]

the last few times i have been in our local library it has been full (abig queue) of people using the free direct access phone to the council so they can complain about council tax / not getting enough benefits / bins / parking fines etc. Loudly and often with lots of swearing! - when was the 'keep quiet' rule phased out?

 

[Ogdred Weary]

Sleeping, they're a good place for a kip.

 

[GerdaWordyer]

They are for books. For many other helpful things now, but now and always for bringing home a pile of books. Lovely helpful socialist scheme.

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

As a rail commuter, I have a fair bit of time available for reading each day and like to get through 3-4 novels a month. Hence I'm no stranger to libraries, both near where I work and in my home town.
Borrowed all 8 volumes of Stephen King's Dark Tower saga last year, saving me £100 or so over the purchase price.
Even when not reading a particular novel, libraries are always a great place to drop in and browse - particularly around the shelves housing the more esoteric and Fortean tomes.

 

[Tunn11]

I declare a vested interest here as an ex Librarian and ex trustee of the professional association (C.I.L.I.P.)

The legislation (1964 Public Libraries and museums act and subsequent amendments) made it a duty of the local authority to provide a “comprehensive and efficient service accessible to all” but never defined what that was. Subsequent performance indicators were often confused and contradictory and often led to “issue chasing” : stuff the place with top ten bestsellers and you get more issues per pound spent than with chemistry text books.

The abolition of the net book agreement led to tendering agreements which led to commercial firms choosing the stock to a specification. (Nuts, I could choose better stock in less time than it took to write the spec and monitor it) It also led to a decrease in specialist publishing and small bookshops, but that’s another story.

Local authority cuts (sorry “efficiency savings”) meant that libraries suffered next to social care, refuse collection etc. Many are now privatised or run by volunteers. Professional input has been downgraded or lost.

I am always being told that,” I don’t need the library I’ve got Google.”

I was lucky enough to be taught information work by the late Godfrey Burston . A memorable exercise was when he got us to look up the height of Nelson’s column in three separate reference books. I forget the number of answers. It soon became clear what was going wrong, once you had decided which Nelson’s column and it was the ground to top height that was wanted, not height above sea level. There were various errors concerning the height of the plinth, the column and the statue being added or subtracted from the total (even Britannica which at the time had a macro and micropedia which had different heights in each) This was highlighted a few years ago when the firm which cleaned the monument needed extra equipment as they had the wrong height. I repeated the exercise using Google and still got different answers over the first twenty hits – including one that listed all the separate parts and added them up wrongly!

The problem is that most people don’t know how to use the internet (a.k.a. Google) any more than they knew how to use a book – and it is far more difficult to assess the source date etc. of the information on the net. No insult intended here – nobody has ever shown them, and typing something in gets you an answer, it looks easy.

It used to be that politicians were proud of having a neutral source of information available to the public, but now most want it to be a branded council outlet. Perhaps everyone getting the same information from the same source is something seen as desirable!

A lot of the interlibrary lending schemes and the collections that they were based on have been lost (“.. too expensive, if someone wants something out of print we’ll buy it from Amazon” – and that’s a quote from a Librarian) Fewer book repositories, any Fortean impact there?

In my view the profession missed a huge trick by not getting the tabloids on its side and not getting the supermarkets etc. to fund “books for Libraries” rather sports equipment for schools, but I was rather a lone voice when I suggested this.

As for the future – Kids love books but you have to give them some reason to keep loving them as they grow up, better stock, good environments for study, up to date IT and inspired training in how to use it, etc.

And – better publicity, the profession tries to give honest information so is perhaps not best suited to “spin” and advertising hype but it means many don’t know of the services available. One instance recently at a U3A meeting very few knew about free access to Family History programmes available at the library often with help using them.

OK rant over I’ll stop boring any that have managed to read this far!!!

 

[Gloucestrian]

They are for books. For many other helpful things now, but now and always for bringing home a pile of books. Lovely helpful socialist scheme.

Not sure it is necessarily a socialist scheme. Some of the earliest public libraries in the UK were founded by philanthropy, many others by volunteerism or private charity. I think it important to distinguish between voluntarism/co-operativism and socialism.

 

[Tunn11]

Very true, Gloucestrian. There are still a lot of libraries around in buildings donated by Andrew Carnegie and the Carnegie institute from around the turn of the last century.

 

[littlebrowndragon]

Further to my earlier post on this thread, I was given some further reminders about my library experiences during discussions with a friend this morning.

First, I had forgotten the extent to which library services have diminished over the last decade. For example, our local libraries no longer stock music cds to borrow. In addition, whilst in my local library this morning, I was appalled to see that they no longer lend dvds.

Also, our so-called librarians are no longer librarians. Of course they are always very helpful and do their best to help the borrower but they simply do not have the knowledge of, or perhaps even the liking for, books that "proper" librarians have. So, if a requested author is not in stock, a librarian could suggest an alternative author, which the non-librarians cannot. Most of the time the women (mostly women) who sit behind the library counter are also sitting behind computers. Their job includes a lot of council admin work e.g. dealing with council tax, arranging for replacement wheelie bins and that sort of thing.

In addition, libraries used to display community information e.g. lists of tradespeople, local events etc. Since the library was refurbished, these have all gone. So, another source of local information is lost to people. When I first moved into the area, I used these information boards a lot.

blessmycottonsocks mentioned a few posts ago that s/he saved £100 on Stephen King books by borrowing them from the library. Well, of course poor folks such as I was cannot afford £100 on books so they must use libraries to get reading material. In addition, our libraries stock audio books. These were way out of my financial league to buy when I had little money. In addition, if you happen to be poor AND to have problems with your vision, then one needs audio books. Libraries also stock Large Print books which assist those with sight problems and little money. Our library also stocks local newspapers and telephone directories and other reference material of that nature. These are all things that poor folks need to access because they cannot do so at home.

In fact, when I was poor and visiting my library several times weekly, I got to know other regulars and we would frequently have a chat. So another function of libraries is to keep communities on the go. Without libraries, without High St. shops, without bank branches etc, etc, town centres are turning into deserts. Under these circumstances communities die with the result that people become terribly isolated and therefore become frightened.

 

[littlebrowndragon]

the last few times i have been in our local library it has been full (abig queue) of people using the free direct access phone to the council so they can complain about council tax / not getting enough benefits / bins / parking fines etc. Loudly and often with lots of swearing! - when was the 'keep quiet' rule phased out?

Since our libraries became council offices as well, the noise levels increased considerably, especially when parents with toddlers were using council services i.e. not library services. However, one time when I was using a library computer with a friend, our neighbour at the next computer complained about the noise we were making. (Admittedly we were laughing a bit over something we were reading on the computer screen, but I really don't think we were making more noise than those parents with toddlers!) Next day we were in, the librarian, who knew us well - rather apologetically told us that there had been a complaint and would we keep our noise levels down in future. So, it appears that the "keep quiet" rule only applies if there is a complaint from someone.

 

[INT21]

Very true, Gloucestrian. There are still a lot of libraries around in buildings donated by Andrew Carnegie and the Carnegie institute from around the turn of the last century.

My own local library is a Carnegie library.

One problem is 'when is local not local' ? By this I mean the problem of, in my case, Bradford Metropolitan District, having the say as to which libraries will close. If one complained the response would be 'but we have a district library.If you don't live in the City area that is not our problem'.

As I am ten miles from Jacob's Well (where the Central Library) is situated, It would curtail my Library visiting.

INT21.

 

[Shady]

I have just been reading this thread and i have just this minute joined my local library, i did have a card, many many years ago, but its lost now, cause i have spent many years moving around. When i get the time, maybe tomorrow, i will go up with some ID and hopefully pick up about six books i put in the cart.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

I keep reading the thread and remind myself how lucky I am to have a local library within easy reach.

It is nothing like the one I remember, growing up.

I remember lying about my age (by a year) to get access to the record-library - LPs in those days. Their collection, then, was a lot smaller than my own library now but it opened so many doors. As a natural bookworm, I had already read about the operas of Wagner and Richard Strauss. I could only dream about hearing such excessive, outrageous music!

Suddenly, I could. I was listening to two operas a day at the age of fifteen, such was my hunger! There was some history of music in the family - my grandfather was a choirmaster at the Catholic church. The house we inherited had a pianola and a reed organ. Even so, my grandfather's tastes ended at brass bands and Gilbert & Sullivan. Thanks to the Library, I could thoroughly indulge my taste for the "Highbrow!"

Which reminds me of the first time I heard that horrible, self-limiting word. I was about ten, had two shillings in my pocket and had found an incomplete set of the Sargent 1929 Iolanthe in a junk-shop. Would the dragon behind the counter accept two bob for the lot? Not only did she insist that I brought her the full amount but she sneered that I would not like them anyway, because they were "Highbrow!" I returned, plonked down the additional shilling and marched out on the path to I knew-not-where. It was certainly to a more rewarding place than that shilling took her with my best wishes.