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Your library needs you – or it may face the final chapter
"IF you have a garden and a library," said the Roman statesman Cicero, "you have everything you need". Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a garden, but most of us have our own library, even if it only consists of a rickety old bookcase crammed with a lifetime's worth of summer holiday reading.
It's a fair bet, too, that many people who enjoy putting their feet up with a good book discovered one of life's great pleasures after a visit to their local library. In my case, it was Whitley Bay Library, in the North East seaside town. It was here that I stumbled across well-thumbed copies of The Hobbit and Treasure Island and first became enthralled by Alfred Hitchcock's Three Investigators books. The library is still there today, although whether it has as many 12-year-old children rushing through its doors every Saturday morning as it used to is another matter.
Dating all the way back to Greek and Roman times, public libraries have always been places to read, learn and even congregate, forums where, as Andrew Carnegie once proclaimed, "neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration". But times change, of course, and such lofty sentiments are quickly forgotten amid the ease of online reference and the stampede for cheap paperbacks at the supermarket.
In their heyday, libraries were the first port of call for readers, but reports earlier this year showed that library lending has fallen by 25 per cent since 2001 with rural areas being the worst hit. Over the last decade the number of books borrowed has dropped by 34 per cent which suggests we're turning our back on this great republic of letters.
"Books are more readily available now and more affordable so it's not that people are reading less, they're reading more but getting their reading matter from different places," says John Harrison of the Museum Libraries and Archives Council.
"Libraries need to compete with that but not duplicate it. Looking at libraries only as a source of books is out of date now. You can do so many other things there, borrow DVDs and CDs, have a coffee, access the internet and a whole range of other information not only about your local council and services, but also wider cultural activities."
Tomorrow is national Join A Library Day, when libraries up and down the country will be opening their doors, writing off old fines, and showing the public they aren't the antiquated places many think they are.
Someone who has made a change to the way she uses libraries is Jane Davis, director of The Reader and the Get Into Reading scheme. She organises reading groups that meet each week in libraries and community centres, giving people who might not normally think of picking up a book a chance to enjoy stories and poems together.
"Libraries need to reinvent themselves and some of them are already doing so. No-one will say so for fear of undermining the great work some library services are doing, but many libraries are under-used and there is a danger they will be lost," she says.
"It would be terrible if they went the way of post offices. A library is a place where we could build a community and bring people together."
There are 208 public library authorities in the UK responsible for managing 4,567 libraries, including mobile ones, and Guy Daines of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, says it is time they were all brought up to scratch.
"It's a very mixed picture, there are the innovative and the forward-thinking libraries and those that frankly leave a lot to
be desired. Investment in libraries is a problem.
"They have to compete with other services, so if footfall is declining and the place is falling down around people's ears, the authorities will consider closing them as they are under pressure financially."
But libraries are responding to the calls for change. For the first time, the National Year of Reading and the Society of Chief Librarians have developed a universal library membership form that can be used to join any library in England.
Tony Durcan, president of the Society of Chief Librarians, believes libraries are still as important as they've always been. "The public library service is the nation's free reading service, providing everyone and anyone with all the reading and information they want and need.
"The library membership campaign is a great way to remind people that joining the public library is free, is easy and, if you want, it can be for life."
It's said that if you don't use it you lose it, what bigger incentive could there be to join up?
Year of Reading library activities are taking place nationwide. To find your nearest event, visit www. yearofreading. org.uk. For Get Into Reading schemes, see www.getintoreading.org
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 8 C to 21 C
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