Welcome to Chuckles Chat where great
blogging minds unite to discuss the topics of the day mainly in the book
and blogging world. I'll be sharing my thoughts on a topic and then
inviting you all to share your thoughts. It's ok to disagree but PLEASE
be respectful of each other's views! All of the comments on my blog are
moderated and offensive posts ie racist, bigoted will not be published!
This week I'm looking at our relationship with our local library.
As a kid I spent most of my summer holidays at the library, or reading the books I got at the library. I would trot round, trying to find something I hadn't tried yet and go home with my three books which I would binge read, and I'd be back a few days later. The staff all knew me by name and had recommendations for me. I would read Enid Blyton's child detectives, anything with a horse in it and any story I just liked the sound of. My best day was when I turned twelve and with my dad's permission, I was presented with my adult library card and off to the horror shelves I went to try some Stephen King! Never did I go back to the kids library after that!
Now I never go go the library. The service lags way behind what I would want and to be honest the staff are not very good nor is the book choice. The last time I used the library regularly was when I first discovered Goodreads and the phrase 'urban fantasy'. I had been looking for books about vampires and werewolves and this Goodreads link kept coming up so I investigated and took note of popular authors on the list. Armed with this I went to the library and found Kelley Armstrong (WOTO #2 Stolen) and Charlaine Harris (Southern Vampire #2 Living Dead in Dallas). It wasn't ideal not getting book ones but I had to take what they had and loved book books. But they were all I could get in up to date horror and UF. The rest of the shelves just had Stephen King, Dean Koontz etc. Last time I checked, the horror section had the same 30 books plus Joe Hill's Heart Shaped Box and that was THE newest one. That was three years ago.
Anyway, the day I was UF hunting, the women working there indicated that they hadn't got anything in beyond book #2 for each despite them being popular and if I wanted to order them from another library it would be £1.50 per book minimum and a 2 month wait. Considering that they also had nothing of the other 15 authors I wanted to try, I kind of gave up and hit Waterstones the next day, treating myself to the two book ones, Jeaniene Frost, Carrie Vaughn, Jennifer Estep and Rob Thurman from my list. After that I started snapping up more in each series and finding ones I hadn't heard of like Christina Henry, DD Barant, Kelly Meding and lots of others. UF became my new obsession and when I opened an Amazon account, the books just flowed.
I'd meander into the library occasionally after that to browse and maybe grab a new Joe Hill or Stephen King or something, which they did get in. But after reading them and handing them back in, I was getting letters saying the books were overdue and fining me for it. Irate, I headed round to the library and told the women I had left them on the part of the counter you were asked to leave them-the 'checking in' bit, ready for the women to y'know, do their job and check them in. I had handed them in three months earlier. Tutting, the head librarian who obviously didn't believe me, went off to check the shelves and came back red faced admitting the books were sitting there and that someone shelved them without checking them in. I couldn't resist telling her 'so I haven't stolen them then'. Then came the grovelling apology. But what if those books had been stolen by someone who saw them waiting to be checked in? I was noted as being the last borrower so I was getting blamed! The next twice I borrowed books the same thing happened-I was accused of keeping overdue books, threatened with fines and the women found the books on the shelves and had to say sorry. That isn't good enough people! Your main job in a library is checking books in and out! Do your dang job already!
I did use the library for their computers on occasion and they were so slow. We had to pay for each computer session and most of the time I was sitting waiting for pages to load. And of course they had content blockers to stop you looking up porn but every second thing you looked at froze up the screen with flashing yellow banners screaming ILLEGAL!!! and you had to get the librarian to unlock it and fill in a paper report of who you are and what site you tried to view. I felt like a criminal. People would stare at me from their computer as if I was a pervert! After having this happen ten times in twenty minutes, I gave up and started saving up for my own computer again!
You can understand why I get so jealous when I hear people in the US talk about their great two storey libraries and how they just walk in and come out with 15 brand new releases to take home. *sulks* Our local libraries just don't measure up to that and with all these new budget cuts I can't see things getting any better. I think these libraries will be closed in ten years time if they cannot attract customers back. When I think back to those happy summer days as a kid, I find it kind of sad that I no longer use the place.
Is your library good or poor? What services do they offer and which do you pay for? Are you a regular user? Are the newest books usually available? Are the staff good? Do you have any library horror stories?
This week I'm looking at our relationship with our local library.
As a kid I spent most of my summer holidays at the library, or reading the books I got at the library. I would trot round, trying to find something I hadn't tried yet and go home with my three books which I would binge read, and I'd be back a few days later. The staff all knew me by name and had recommendations for me. I would read Enid Blyton's child detectives, anything with a horse in it and any story I just liked the sound of. My best day was when I turned twelve and with my dad's permission, I was presented with my adult library card and off to the horror shelves I went to try some Stephen King! Never did I go back to the kids library after that!
Now I never go go the library. The service lags way behind what I would want and to be honest the staff are not very good nor is the book choice. The last time I used the library regularly was when I first discovered Goodreads and the phrase 'urban fantasy'. I had been looking for books about vampires and werewolves and this Goodreads link kept coming up so I investigated and took note of popular authors on the list. Armed with this I went to the library and found Kelley Armstrong (WOTO #2 Stolen) and Charlaine Harris (Southern Vampire #2 Living Dead in Dallas). It wasn't ideal not getting book ones but I had to take what they had and loved book books. But they were all I could get in up to date horror and UF. The rest of the shelves just had Stephen King, Dean Koontz etc. Last time I checked, the horror section had the same 30 books plus Joe Hill's Heart Shaped Box and that was THE newest one. That was three years ago.
Anyway, the day I was UF hunting, the women working there indicated that they hadn't got anything in beyond book #2 for each despite them being popular and if I wanted to order them from another library it would be £1.50 per book minimum and a 2 month wait. Considering that they also had nothing of the other 15 authors I wanted to try, I kind of gave up and hit Waterstones the next day, treating myself to the two book ones, Jeaniene Frost, Carrie Vaughn, Jennifer Estep and Rob Thurman from my list. After that I started snapping up more in each series and finding ones I hadn't heard of like Christina Henry, DD Barant, Kelly Meding and lots of others. UF became my new obsession and when I opened an Amazon account, the books just flowed.
I'd meander into the library occasionally after that to browse and maybe grab a new Joe Hill or Stephen King or something, which they did get in. But after reading them and handing them back in, I was getting letters saying the books were overdue and fining me for it. Irate, I headed round to the library and told the women I had left them on the part of the counter you were asked to leave them-the 'checking in' bit, ready for the women to y'know, do their job and check them in. I had handed them in three months earlier. Tutting, the head librarian who obviously didn't believe me, went off to check the shelves and came back red faced admitting the books were sitting there and that someone shelved them without checking them in. I couldn't resist telling her 'so I haven't stolen them then'. Then came the grovelling apology. But what if those books had been stolen by someone who saw them waiting to be checked in? I was noted as being the last borrower so I was getting blamed! The next twice I borrowed books the same thing happened-I was accused of keeping overdue books, threatened with fines and the women found the books on the shelves and had to say sorry. That isn't good enough people! Your main job in a library is checking books in and out! Do your dang job already!
I did use the library for their computers on occasion and they were so slow. We had to pay for each computer session and most of the time I was sitting waiting for pages to load. And of course they had content blockers to stop you looking up porn but every second thing you looked at froze up the screen with flashing yellow banners screaming ILLEGAL!!! and you had to get the librarian to unlock it and fill in a paper report of who you are and what site you tried to view. I felt like a criminal. People would stare at me from their computer as if I was a pervert! After having this happen ten times in twenty minutes, I gave up and started saving up for my own computer again!
You can understand why I get so jealous when I hear people in the US talk about their great two storey libraries and how they just walk in and come out with 15 brand new releases to take home. *sulks* Our local libraries just don't measure up to that and with all these new budget cuts I can't see things getting any better. I think these libraries will be closed in ten years time if they cannot attract customers back. When I think back to those happy summer days as a kid, I find it kind of sad that I no longer use the place.
Is your library good or poor? What services do they offer and which do you pay for? Are you a regular user? Are the newest books usually available? Are the staff good? Do you have any library horror stories?