Do libraries have a future?

Fewer people are visiting their local library according to new figures from the government, with the number of weekly library goers in England going down by 32% in five years. When was the last time you visited your local library?

The government claims the figures show that the service must be "reshaped", and wants to encourage supermarkets and pubs to start lending books. One pub in the Yorkshire Dales already doubles as a library may be a vision of the future for many communities.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/haveyoursay/2010/08/do_libraries_have_a_future.html

I was a member of the local library from the age of 10 until about 10-15 years ago. I still read as much as I always did but books are so much easier to get now mainly due, IMO, to the number of charity shops which are opening all over the place. Most towns have anywhere between 10 and 20 charity shops and they have almost any kind of book you want.........................very cheap. I think libraries were used a lot more because books were overpriced and considered to be luxury items and therefore not always accessible. That's not now the case. Apart from the charity shops and second hand book stores, new books are available in most supermarkets at competitive prices. I can't remember the last time I paid the list price for a book. I must admit most of mine come from charity shops, car boot sales or bargain book shops. So the services of libraries are now not quite as essential in communities as they used to be.

our local library do dvd,d cd,s and have internet for prople who cant afford a pc (and there is always someone there to advice people new to the net and have seen many pensioners learning for free etc)i think it would be a shame if it closed even though i dont use it all the reading i want to do i do it on the net :dunno:

Our local library has ll that as well wg............but the fact is their main business is books and the number of people borrowing books has dwindled in recent years. I wouldn't like to see them shutting but in this present climate when councils are looking for any little corner where they can save money, I fear for the future of small community libraries.

I think they should keep them open, you can photo copy things now and print things off (if your printer has broken it's very handy) and it's good for the school kids to study there if they can't afford a computer as many can't.

I think they need to add something to it though, maybe a coffee shop or a play area for the younger children, I remember never being interested in books until I had my first library card, then you couldn't get me away from books Lol.

The problem with the small ones like we have is they're not open for very long hours, so there's a limit to how much time kids could spend in them. Our original library back in the 60s had a study room which was filled with reference books. It had a large table and about 6-8 chairs and students used it regularly. But when they built the new one, that wasn't included. Not sure why, because it was well used.

Oh wow, I don't understand why they do things like that, after all it's the students that need it more than us isn't it. What a shame mazzie xxxx

Our local council are gradually destroying all the little communities around her with their budget cuts. They'd do better and save more if they cut the number of damn manufactured jobs within the council. There are more gaffers than there are workers. As the saying goes............too many chiefs and not enough indians.

I know mazzie, the councils are so stupid now, we had road works here the other week and it took one man to cut, another to poor water while it was being cut, another to sweep, another to drive the lifter another to drive the rubble away and even more cleaner uppers. Then they had the tarmacers. Geeze. They did loads of sections of the road and it took a week, the road isn't that long

We used to be multi taskers where I worked and there were no bodies standing around waiting for others to do the jobs :dunno:

They waste so much money and it don't look any better in face the road looks a right mess

That's my rant over

the trouble is they are all run by strict looking old bags that keeping going sssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhh
everytime you fart :dunno:

Well if you weren't such a stinking' pig and farting in the library that wouldn't be a problem for you.

sod off