Saturday 6 February 2016

In praise of the library










In honour of National Libraries Day I thought I'd say a few words. Although happily I think I'm preaching to the converted.

I've been borrowing books from libraries for as long as I can remember. The library of my childhood was in a low brick building, not hugely attractive from the outside, but inside, oh, inside it was magical. It had a slippery parquet floor and that delicious wood and paper library smell. There were padded vinyl seats to sit and while you browsed. I knew which shelves were best,where to find exciting adventures, stories of friendship and tales of survival and derring-do.

Everyone had a handful of little green cardboard pockets for the tickets to go in. When you borrowed a book you took it to the counter and the librarian put the library ticket in the pocket and filed it alphabetically under your name in a long metal drawer. Then she stamped the front of the book so that you knew when to return it.

Back then if you wanted to find out about something, the library was where you went. I remember big hardback books about pirates and Elizabethan England and African animals borrowed for homework projects. And the reference section and copies of all of the local newspapers. Bristol Central Library, in many of the pictures above, still has ancient wooden drawers filled with records written in fountain pen and countless reels of newspapers on microfiche.

I used to go there to study when I was doing a law degree. I always managed much more work in the breathless quiet of the reading room, tucked into one of the old wooden cubbyholes than ever I did at home.

Things have changed at the library of course. Now you can log out your own books, spend the day on a computer or renew your books online from home. I often have a look through the library catalogue online to see what I might like to borrow. There's a charge of £1 for an adult to reserve a book, but children can reserve as many as they want for free. Everyone can borrow twenty items at a time. And unlike buying secondhand bookshops, a small sum goes to the writer every time a book is borrowed.

Over the years I've visited countless libraries. All of the ones in the vicinity of wherever I've been living. Here in the Libraries West area you can borrow a book from any library in the region and return it to any other library. I still remember how thrilled I was when I discovered that. Borrow a book from the big library in Bath and take it back to my local library. Brilliant.

For many people libraries have been life changing. Education is here, in every subject under the sun. If you want to make changes, this is the place to come. Inspiration is here. If you didn't know before you came in, you'll have some ideas by the time you leave. And motivation is here. All of these books, written by knowledgeable  and enthusiastic people. All of this information being shared. The whole world is there. Libraries are filled with possibilities.

That's before I even get to the therapeutic role of fiction in our lives. After a long day, or when things aren't going the way you wish they were, a book is an escape. Go somewhere completely different. Be someone else. Just for a while, have a rest from your cares. The fictional world will stay with you for a while as you battle the real one. It will help. Converted already, I know you are, but I didn't think it would hurt to say it out loud.

The children are big fans of the library as well now. Hopefully it's something that will stay with them. And hopefully the government will recognise the importance of libraries in everyone's lives. I won't bang on for too long about cuts and closures and shorter opening times and axing librarians to use volunteers instead. I just hope the powers that be understand the role of books in our lives and our futures.

I read something once that said, "People won't save what they don't know". That's why I'm always happy to see children visiting the library. If future generations have the same happy, exciting childhood library memories as me they won't let libraries fade away.

40 comments:

  1. I'm a huge library fan as well and as I commute around 300 miles every week, I've also discovered that you can borrow audio books too. Such a pleasure listening to a good book being read by well known actors that I'm almost happy to be stuck in a traffic jam! Our local library is a real community hub: a gallery space for local artists to exhibit, a dementia cafe and support group and a writers group to name just a few initiatives. My library card is now a keyring with a barcode which is very efficient but I miss those cardboard tickets! Helen

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  2. Lovely to read, thank you x

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  3. That is a lovely building CJ!! Our two kids were raised with a great love for our local library. I remember the tickets inside the book jacket but as time passes I am afraid things might change for libraries.

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  4. I had a toy library set when I was little, with a date stamp with rubber numbers that you moved to change the date. I love the sound of a date stamp plonking down onto a book. Shame it's all scanners now. But libraries still rock. Great post CJ, and I love the brass name plates in your photos. Sam x

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    1. My college uses date stamps - I know exactly what you mean, there is something nostalgic and comforting about real date stamps x

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  5. You are definitely preaching to the converted. I worked in the Central Library in Winchester for almost ten years and loved every minute and still use our local library often. Things have changed a great deal from the 31 years ago when I left the library to have my first son but in my eyes they still very much have a place in our lives. I was highly delighted the other day when we were walking through a very small village to find a little library installed in one of the old red telephone boxes, what a great idea, especially for the older generation who perhaps aren't able to get into town. xx

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  6. Ah yes those little cardboard pockets - great memories. And the Bristol library is a particularly beautiful building.

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  7. We have a wonderful library system here in Orange County. Yes ..... you ARE preaching to the converted in this case. However, OUR library isn't nearly as beautiful as yours. LOL

    Our library has a program where you can order online and the books gets brought right to your door. You can mail it back when you are done or you can do like we do, and return it through the library's drive through window.

    There's nothing better than a good book, a chilly day and a cuppa!

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  8. Amen! Your libraries are beautiful. Ours is a fluorescent-lit, partially underground affair, under a bank. But my kids love to go. We can go to story time and do a free craft, too, when I'm organized enough to be on time. More than that, the librarian in the small town where we used to live welcomed us and made it feel like home. I can see now how blue I was at times, home alone with baby and isolated, but her library was a warm place to visit and read and have tea and a cookie for my son was always offered. She started a reading group and invited me along. That little library got us through some long winter months. Libraries are a key service in any community, I feel. Even if it is disconcerting to do the check out myself nowadays!

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  9. Great post. I think there are enough people who feel strongly about libraries that there would be an outcry if they were ever to be threatened seriously. We are huge library fans here, especially L who likes to visit at least once a week and makes a bee line for it whenever we're in town. It does my heart good to see his happiness there x

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  10. An excellent post, and terrific pictures. You're certainly preaching to a long-time convert as I've been a regular public library user for well over 60 years.
    Recent years have seen plenty of changes, and not all for the better sadly, and I live in hope that better times are ahead.
    Happy reading. Flighty xx

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  11. What a beautiful library and such heartfelt words. Yes you have summed up how most people feel. I know schools do their best to promote the love of books and children still love pouring over them. We may all have our kindles and tablets but there will always be the need for libraries and real books, particularly when they are in such beautiful buildings. B X

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  12. The library bus is a lifeline for a lot of people in our area. I am blessed that I can drive into the local town but a lot of others can't. So sad that this seems to be a way of saving money.

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  13. This is such a lovely post. I am constantly checking out audio books from the library, and they are all free. I have such great memories of the library from when I was little, all those books! It was like magic.
    Hugs,
    Meredith

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  14. I love libraries, there is such an air of calm about them. But I can't be trusted. I always leave the books out too long and then forget to renew online and then am too embarrassed to go I and so they get even more overdue. The record for my biggest fine stands at £60 YIKES
    Jillxo

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  15. I too love a library....it is our haunt on a Saturday morning, a few bits in the shops, the newspapers, a pile of books from the library then tea and kitkats in the library cafe. As a result my 6 & 8 year old often have their noses nestled in books :) x

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  16. Gosh, what a library that is! I agree with pretty much everything you say here CJ. I worked in a bookshop for many years and so didn't really bother with a library as I could borrow books from work. But then I had kids, and realised what magical places they are. We go often, always the four of us together, and always borrow something. I just miss the date stamp in the front of the book, I wish they still did that. It's so much more practical than a slip of paper I lose the minute I walk out the door. xx

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  17. Yes! Thanks for celebrating our libraries, CJ. My husband was employed in NYC for six weeks. When I visited him there one of the main site seeing ventures we took was to the magnificent public library...so full of adventures to check out!

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  18. I don't know where I'be be without the library. Like you I've been borrowing books for as long as I can remember. I'm already signed up to the mobile library that comes through the hamlet once a fortnight and I visited my local library yesterday. My son became a library borrower when he was 3 months (we used to lie on the floor on our backs looking at the pictures and making noises) and my daughter joined when she was one week old - it was my first solo outing with two children! No I couldn't survive without the library, although I have to say after scanning the 100 most borrowed books of 2014/2015 that only one has found its way home here and that was Gruffalo, published in 1999 and the 85th most borrowed book in the last year - isn't that amazing!

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  19. That library looks superb. Hurrah for libraries generally, we are so lucky to have them. I didn't know that authors are paid when someone borrows their book, nor that you can borrow at one library in the area and return it to another - that's very useful to know. Great post, CJ. xx

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  20. Lovely CJ. I used to go to the library every day when I was at school (the village library was at the school, open at break times). I also worked there as a teenager and remember the little pockets with the card. We filed them by date of borrowing. I loved stamping the books with the date. Now, I am not often at the library, I am not sure why. Have a lovely Sunday. x

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  21. Albert Einstein said that the only thing we absolutely need to know is the location of the library...smart man, huh? I am proud to say that I work part-time in my local library, and feel like a knitter in my local LYS, I want everything I see! It is a good thing they do not dock my pay for every book I check out! But I must admit, CJ, that our library is nowhere near as grand as yours. Thanks for the lovely photos.

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  22. oh those little envelopes. I remember those! I love our library, and I'm always browsing the online catalogue for borrowing from other local libraries too x

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  23. Hey CJ,
    I revised for my A Levels at the central library. Does it still smell the same? Leeds Uni had a similar, even grander library, and like you, I found it very conducive to study. The library of mt childhood sounds the same as yours. My Mum would take us every week. Olly and I are part of the Save St Ives library group. It's opening times have been reduced already. It is in a prime position in town, and I fear that it will be closed and the building bought by the hideous developers that want to fill where we live with holiday lets. It will happen. It has an inevitability about it. But we shall support it nonetheless.
    Leanne xx

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  24. I think if our library was in such a fab building I would visit much more! ;) xxx

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  25. When I was a child our local library was actually in someone's house. Open three afternoons a week and you could only check out 2 books! I would be on the doorstep when it opened, select a book and read for the afternoon, then just at closing turn that one in and check out the two to go. two days later, I'd be back, books read, to do it again. The lady who ran it was a sweet grandmotherly type, who sat in a rocking chair where she could see all three reading areas, and she crocheted all afternoon! Sweet memories!

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  26. I bet your libraries are so historic and wonderful. I did visit them when I was young but have to admit I haven't used them much as an adult. Our schools have libraries in them so kids get used to using them at school. Thanks for reminding us all of the treasures of the library. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  27. I too will join in your praise of libraries. I used to visit them with my Dad and if for some reason I couldn't visit he would always bring me back a wonderful selection of books! I did work experience in a library and used those green cardboard pockets. I had to put the covers on the books too and it was difficult to not get engrossed in the book! I have been to the library this weekend for me it is the equivalent of seeing the delights of a sweet shop!So many books have come to my rescue over the years when I need to get away from real life for a short while! Sarah x

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  28. Well, I'm speechless, and I don't think it just because English is not my first language. Great photos and wonderful text, I think you captured the essence of what the library is. My library is very small and you can borrow only two books each time, but I'm very happy there is one close by. I love being in the library, choosing books, the smell, everything. Your library is very beautiful and I suppose it has an excellent selection. Lucky you :

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  29. This is a really nice post CJ. My husband and I were just remembering about the libraries of our childhood the other day. Card catalogs, encyclopedias, micro film - things that our kids will never know about!

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  30. What a lovely post CJ. Our local library has played an important part in our lives too. When the girls were little a visit to our local library just a stone's throw away from us was a weekly ritual and they would come away armed with bedtime reading for the week. Like you, my eldest daughter spent a lot of her study time in the library when she was studying for her exams in 6th form and also for her degree later on. I love your photos, what a fabulous building. Have a great week. Jane xx

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  31. Great post CJ.. I've used our local library for years and my son, when he was young, had his own card and loved picking out his books he wanted to read. It's a great way to see lots of different books and I've bought many books after borrowing them from the library first. xx

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  32. A lovely post, CJ, and gorgeous photos of Bristol Central Library. I spent a good deal of my childhood and teenage years in my local libraries borrowing books for pleasure and homework and, like you, remember well the little cards. I used to strap books onto the back of my bike and cycle home afterwards, and practically lived in one at university. When my children were little we went to our local library every week for storytelling sessions and reading challenges. I don't visit my local library any more, but I do work in the library at school every day. They are great places just to be - long live the library! Think I should get down to my local one again.
    Cathy x

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  33. What a fabulous library! I would love to see it in person and I'm really thankful for your photos of it. I love the library and would happily go every week, but I haven't been able to do it that often for the past couple of years. I did when my children were younger and we were less busy, which was so nice. I always looked forward to it. I loved the library when I was a child too, it was one of my favorite places. Thank you for sharing.

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  34. Love those pictures. We're lucky to have a Carnegie central library here, a beautiful building, the one my best friend at school had a Saturday job in, the one she worked in later as a proper librarian (and the place where I spent a lot of time waiting for her!). Sadly, the town also has some of the lowest literacy levels in the country which the library service is trying to help address but it isn't easy.

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  35. Oo, that's just reminded me, I must renew my library books this evening! Super photos of Bristol library, I can feel the atmosphere, it's almost ecclesiastical isn't it? I love libraries but I'm afraid I don't find them quite so appealing now that they are not the quiet hallowed places of before. You know you can buy sets of those little green cards and a date stamper, a complete little library set for lending your own books. I was very tempted when I saw it!
    Caz xx

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  36. Yeah, pretty grateful for libraries and the lovely librarians that made such an impact on my childhood and person. I still love to "play" librarian and find a book for someone looking for "something". I never library enough.

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  37. I didn't know that writers are paid every time a book is borrowed. That's great.
    My earliest memories of libraries are the British Council library in Pune, India, where I was born and brought up, and Morningside Library in Edinburgh where we borrrowed books on return to the UK. Years later I returned with my children and used my Dad's ticket to take out books to read to them when we visited him.

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  38. What a wonderful library and building, ours are shrinking here, sadly

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  39. Libraries. I reckon heaven is a library, and one with a garden to sit and read in, of course!

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