Campaign for your library?

I'm becoming frustrated.

Today I read in the Guardian that a high court bid to halt library closures in Brent has been unsuccessful. Six branch libraries were boarded up immediately after the ruling. 

I'm sad about that and I wish those libraries could have been saved.  But I'm frustrated with what I hear of the arguments of the campaign to stop it, and with the many campaigns like it.  They seem to be overly focused on one key refrain: Think of the Children!  They are fronted by celebrity authors like Philip Pullman and Jacqueline Wilson who wheel out the same old stories about a childhood shaped by access to libraries.  Without libraries they wouldn't have become the best-selling writers they are today; without libraries children from low income families would have little or no access to books etc etc.  I heard a podcast of Zadie Smith saying pretty much the same thing; and I've read innumerable broadsheet articles about how important libraries are to children. It's the seeping nostalgia of the middle classes. I have a similar story to tell myself. 

It's an easy argument to make.  Why?  Because children *use* libraries, or parents use them on their behalf.  I work in libraries these days (though at a remove, in the Archives department) and I sit in meetings about membership, book issue figures and stock turn (i.e. how many times a book goes out in a year).  Children are by far and away the biggest users of libraries.  Children's books, and especially picture books for pre-readers, are the most popular books of all.  In our central library issues of children's books has soared over the last few years, and each book works incredibly hard, being borrowed again and again and again.  The branch libraries often complain that they don't have enough picture books.  Parents take out armfuls of 20 at a time.

It's a shame that those same parents don't borrow books for themselves.  There are very very few adult library users who take out armfuls of 20 books at a time.  The sad fact is that fewer and fewer adults borrow any books at all.   If adults borrowed books at the same rate as the under 5s believe me we would be choking on our delight.  As it is we spend endless hours talking about how we can convince more people to borrow and to borrow more.  Because if nobody is buying into your core product how can you continue to justify your existence?

This is the problem with the nostalgic rhetoric of the library campaigns.  They're about how libraries are important for other people - for children in particular, and those on low-incomes, and the unemployed - and how preserving them is simply right because they're the sign of a civilised society.  This is wrong-headed.   If we want to save libraries we have to recognise that they are important to us, the adults, the ones who can nip out to Waterstones on a whim and buy a book anytime we want.  We have to choose to *use* them, not just to save them.  We have to choose to borrow and not to buy.  There is no point wringing our hands about library closures if we haven't stepped foot in our own local library in years or ever. We shouldn't be surprised if they close when our actions suggest we don't want them. It's no use saying 'it's ok for me, I can pay for my reading, but what about the poor souls who can't?'

I'm not ranting at you blog-readers, because I know many of you do use your libraries.  The many wonderful library loot posts prove it.  We're such devoted readers that we'll take books anywhere we can get them: from book stores and libraries both.  But the point we have to make to anyone who will listen is that libraries are not just for people who need them.  We should be saying that constantly.  If we want libraries to survive we have to borrow books just because we want to (or might want to) read them.  Not because we're a bit short this month but because the library is the place where we can meet with books of all kinds - try new things; return to comfortable favourite things - for free.   We have to say loud and clear that libraries are not just places to inspire the love of reading in children; they're places to inspire that love in us all.

Anyway, that's what I feel.  Now I'm off to the library (and on my day-off too).

~~Victoria~~

Comments

[Jenny]

You're quite right, of course. These days, I get at least 95% of what I read from the library, but when I take my enormous tote bag home, it's mostly full of books for my children, with two or three for me. (After all, they can read their picture books in ten minutes; mine take me a bit longer.) But I do everything I can! And I never flinch at paying late fees! :)

[Stefanie]

Standing ovation from over in my corner! In the U.S. it's always about children and teens too, how to get kids to come to the library. But you are right, adults need to use the library too and not just adults who can't afford to buy books. Personally I can't imagine being without a library card and not using my public library.

[EllieJayArt]

Very good point indeed! I worked in a library for five years and the children’s books always saw the most issues. We tried to target adults who would not generally use the library with Chick Lit, Crime and TV-tie in book groups and displays. We were seeing a noticeable improvement when I left a couple of years ago.

I fully intended to carry on being an avid library user after moving despite not working in a library anymore. And I’m ashamed to say I’m not. After using my new local library for almost a year (I won’t name names, let’s just say it’s in the South West) I had to stop going as I was fed up with the people working there being so rude and unhelpful!

I think the trouble with many libraries is they are being forced to make changes the ‘higher ups’ perceive as necessary (self service etc) and that the average user doesn’t really want. Library assistants get hassle from both sides and either have to take things into their own hands (as we did at the library I worked at, using local knowledge to target their would-be readers) or they end up apathetic and driving long time library users away.

(Love the blog by the way!)

[Jodie]

I agree, but I would like a discussion about what stops adult from going into libraries. Personally there are practicalities that get in the way of me being a library user that I would love to see done away with by library administrators. I pass a library every day in the millenium city I work in. I can pop in, read on site, but I'm not allowed to borrow there because I live in a different borough. The library is 30 minutes away from where I live, I've worked in the city for four years and both my parents grew up there, but none of us can borrow from it now.

Also I work a 9-5 job and although we've a local library I could visit on weekends because it is very close to my home, the easiest way for me to go to the library would be to bob into the library near where I work, which is often open until 6. It's a convenience thing sure and I could be less lazy...but like you say I can just order the book online. Libraries have got to find ways to compete with the ease of book buying and that's not easy when they have limited funding to pay for working hours (I would love a late night library like the one at university) and tracking resources.

[Victoria]

Jenny: Tis true a picture book is read in a moment, and so not directly comparable with adult fiction. But I love the idea of adults raiding their part of the library with as much enthusiasm as the children. :-)

Stephanie: I'm the same. One of the first things I have to do when I move to a new place is find the library and get myself a card. It's in the same category as sorting out a phone line and an internet connection. A must do immediately kind of thing.

EllieJayArt: What a shame that your library doesn't have good public service! :-( Our managers are very strong proponents of customer service, and try to do everything to make the experience of visiting the library better. In one sense I know what you mean about libraries moving beyond their customers' wishes with self-service, etc. But I think that changes like that can work for the better. For example, we use self-service in all our libraries but the idea was to free up staff to talk to customers, do reader development activities and other cool interactive stuff that we didn't get time to do before. I think it means more engagement with customers rather than less (as long as you keep the same number of staff, of course, which is vital). The problems start when self-service is seen as a way of cutting staffing, as though all librarians and library assistants did was stamp books!

Jodie: That does sound very inconvenient. Does your library not subscribe to the national framework agreement? The agreement means that anybody from anywhere in the UK can join any library they want to. You can join our library as a non-resident and have all the same library benefits as a resident. (The only difference is you can't get associated benefits, like free entry to the museums etc). You should write to the Head of Service and find out why they don't allow that because, I agree, it's a huge turn-off.

Libraries have to be very competitive with opening hours as well. We're open 7 days a week, and till 8pm four nights a week. The library has to be a place that is easy to slip into any time that is convenient to you. It's never going to be as convenient as Amazon, but it can get pretty close.

[Lal]

In certain respects using the library seems redundant when I have so many books in my TBR pile, but then it serves two purposes: I'm using a local service and thus helping to keep it running, and (more pathetically, I know) I can avoid the risk of trashing my own books in transport or when reading and eating at the same time. It's not like I go out of my way to damage library books but they tend to come back slightly more bashed and covered in foodstains than if they were my own. Ahem.

I never quite adjusted to going from a mobile library as a child (which for some reason didn't actually bother with fines and so I had a copy of Weaveworld hidden in my desk for about five years [from the age of 9 to 14] at which point I gave up on ever being able to get through it) to the proper library where if you went over the three week loan period you were fined each day for every book over the deadline. I assume this is standard across the UK.

And yet as an adult my local library was always happy to let me take out the maximum of 12 books, even though I was never going to finish them in three weeks, because the librarians were happy that I was keeping up borrowing numbers. I did manage to rack up a series of colossal fines, but I didn't mind giving the library money, even though this was in hindsight rather stupid.

I should see if there is a library still open where I'm living now and get myself a new library card.

[Jodie]

Victoria my mum is a library user and I'm pretty sure she can't borrow from that library, but can borrow from any library in our borough. Still have sent off an e-mai to make sure, because it would be sooo useful.