Time To Convert Libraries To Affordable Homes?

[R K]

Apparently I'm paying for yours?

Community goods.

I don't own them. I read them and give them back.

You should try it.

[Mrs Bear]

Well I did also mention tablets and who doesn't have a widescreen monitor these days? Don't say what about if you're on the train, are you going to take a huge kids book on the train? Sorry you're still asking for subsidised expensive buildings that I think could be used better elsewhere (if we could have both great, but as you know I didn't create the housing crisis, I'd love green fields too but I didn't let 3 million people into the country without sorting out extra homes for them etc. etc.). I wish we could keep libraries so people could have free large picture books for their kids but I need a home and I would prefer a cheap, town centre home over a library. Sorry.

OK, we'll agree to differ.

I'm all too aware that people who can't see the point of libraries will probably never be persuaded.

I'm much the same with football. Yes, I'm aware that I'm not expected to pay any of my tax for that, except of course for policing all those matches...

Should add that a larger library building than my local near here is going to be flogged off and the library moved to a more modern building nearby.

This is not far off a town centre location (certainly urban) but I think I can safely predict that not one of the flats that subsequently come on to the market will be anything like cheap.

[EUBanana]

Community goods.

I don't own them. I read them and give them back.

You should try it.

"Community goods", what ********.

That's the whole point. Not everybody uses public services, but everybody has to pay for them. While some sort of collective ownership might make sense for some things, supporting your hobbies ain't one of them.

Buy your own damn books.

Edited March 9, 2013 by EUBanana

[erat_forte]

A thing that amazes me about modern towns and villages is how many houses there are and how few other places there are. Its like no-one makes anything, no one is productive, most people must spend most of their time isolated in their own home. Society becoming more and more fragmented.

[Mrs Bear]

I agree completely. When I was unemployed libraries were a great place to go to feel like a part of society and read a paper or read a book and hang out for a while without being cooped up in my studio flat and feeling a bit lonely, especially when I had aggro from a neighbour in the same house. There are lots of low income people, I have no doubt, who benefit from libraries, but it's not just low income people. It's all types of people who benefit bar some people who never visit libraries for whatever reason.

Libraries are an important part of the infrastructure of society. But I guess there are people who, like Thatcher, believe that there is no such thing as society, just individuals. A pernicious belief.

What she actually said was '...there are individuals, and there are families.'

'Society' is often used in a very vague and woolly way IMO.

[bewildered_renter]

I suppose I also use the roads in the car but that is paid out of the ball crunching excise duty on petrol.

Not the local roads, they come out of council tax.

Still, fair play if you walked 5 miles to use the library.

[bewildered_renter]

I think I can safely predict that not one of the flats that subsequently come on to the market will be anything like cheap.

I think you will be right.

[Self Employed Youth]

I am a librarian and as expected can fight the corner for libraries as perhaps the only community space left that is free to absolutely everybody at the point of use.

Book issues are dropping but this is partly made up by eBooks loans which are increasing at a rapid rate.

Use by reading groups, attendance at work clubs and use by children are all going up. There is also the government's Digital By Default programme which is driving people not just to the Internet but to libraries and the available staff support to fill in forms online etc

Having said all that, I also feel there is a good argument for less libraries so that those that remain are credible and well-resourced.

I worked in a library for a year, and I enjoyed it. I have always visited libraries regularly too.

Some things I noticed;

Self serve machines put old people off of coming in particular, and also some young.

The availability of books is getting worse - I often had to direct people to the internet so they could read certain books.

Certain costs do no good for the library - late charges for example, it puts people off and stops them from visiting. Also the charge for requesting a book from a different library.

I understand why such costs may arise, but I think they are often too much - and many times they don't cost the library anything extra, as there is always a man driving between libraries to lock/open them and move a few books around from place to place.

The last 6 books I have wished to read I have looked for in the library, and they aren't there, so I have purchased them instead. The library won't buy new books at the minute either. I am fast approaching ownership of a level of books that will exceed my lifetime reading capacity. Other than a few reference books, there is little point in me owning so many - I might wish for my friends and family to read them, so having the easily accessible to lend out is handy, but they could do so if they were available at the library...

I think libraries need to start opening regional warehouses and offering storage facilities. You buy books for (or donate books to) the library hub and become exempt from late fees etc. This way, people can share their books much more efficiently, and vastly increase the amounts of books available to others to read.

[@contradevian]

I think libraries need to start opening regional warehouses and offering storage facilities. You buy books for (or donate books to) the library hub and become exempt from late fees etc. This way, people can share their books much more efficiently, and vastly increase the amounts of books available to others to read.

That is not a bad idea, however Amazon do allow you to trade in your books. Usually taking a hefty cut for itself but I doubt a council run library could be more efficient handling exchanges.

To some extent I do the same with DVD's. Most films now are not worth keeping. So I buy new or secondhand, trade them, exchange them in CeX or sell on Amazon/Ebay.

Just recently my book collection has undergone a change, selling off some my O'Reilly technical books on Unix and networking and acquiring a library targeted more towards trading, forex and spread beating.

And this is another challenge for public libraries, they are unlikely to be able to harness the long tail of specialised interest. I noticed my own local library has a really lousy legal section. When I lived in Leicester this wasn't a problem, I could use De-Montfort Uni's facilities as a former student and flashing some ID. Most Uni's I think will allow general public access to the reference section.