MoneySaving Poll: Will you miss your local library if it's shut down?

Libraries would be fine if they were entirely self funding. But they aren't. If people were aware of the actual cost per book lent (to the local Council Tax payers most of whom never set foot in a library) then they might take a different view.
It is crucially important for kids to learn to read and to value books - but they get this partly from school - and there are these wonderful things called bookshops that we are in danger of losing if people don't use them. Libraries also used to be a valuable reference resource but the majority of smaller libraries don't maintain a reference section - and in the age of the internet they are arguably less important. When was the last time you consulted an encyclopaedia?
It is probably viable for larger cities to maintain a full library resource - but in the present climate of ready access to information on the internet and discounted books available online it is very difficult to justify maintaining a library in every town.

Our village library has just been taken over as a charitable.trust made up of local volunteers as the council were going to close it.

I don't go myself nowadays as I prefer to buy books for myself and the kids so that we can read them again and again, and we have more books than we know what to do with! plus I'm terrible at remembering to return library books on time!

But I know many rely on the library - I did when the kids were tiny, mainly as a form of entertainment: the libraries where.we used.to live did excellent rhyme time groups and science discovery days etc and we even just used to go to see the murals in the kids corner and do some.colouring before taking out some.books for the week.

I used the library loads in my youth and discovered many new writers that way. I think the country would be a lot poorer in many ways if the libraries (and museums) were allowed to close.

I have always been a regular library user since I was old enough to read and "devour" books. It's been a godsend for the last six months as I've had 2 hours a day on the train commuting and had books and e-books from the library to keep me occupied.

I occasionally visit the library, but in its current form I wouldn't be bothered if it went (though I know some others who would.)

I miss the old library. Same location, but they blew over a million if I recall on a refurb and don't have nearly as many books available as they did prior. It's visually more attractive on the interior, but it wastes a lot of space. Fees to order books have gone through the roof, when previously the book would likely have been available, even if someone may have had it on loan and you had to check another time before being able to find it. They took the biscuit by announcing plans (which they're still going ahead with) to waste millions more moving the library (and a load of other amenities) to a different location, before the refurbed library was even finished!

The selection of e-books available was dire at last checking, so I think as a minimum, that needs improving if libraries are to be closed.

The library as I see it currently has three main uses:

- By the older generation who don't like e-books
- As a creche (seems always be a child's club of some sort, and if free childcare is increased, it's perhaps not surprising that councils are thinking about closing them.)
- By jobseekers to use the internet. I would go as far as to say the jobseekers will be hardest hit. It wouldn't surprise me if someone couldn't afford broadband while out of work, considering they also have to keep a roof over their head and fund transport to the job centre/interviews.

Students have school/university libraries and while not the case for primary school children (as far as I know), busy parents probably prefer to find them the required information off of the internet rather than taking them to the library. Pensioners have free, unlimited, non-means tested bus passes so one could argue that it doesn't matter if the library is in the town or further afield.

I would argue that councils should be looking at their own efficiencies (people who don't have a clue what they're doing are still in jobs, which costs money as it takes longer to get anything done. They also give themselves excessive pay rises and bonuses, waste millions refurbing their own offices, etc.) In addition to being guilty of the above, the local council inserted a totally unnecessary extra lane into a roundabout and since then, there have been more accidents on it than there ever used to be. They now want to spend loads more money putting traffic lights on it because it's too dangerous!

I digress, but councils need to look at their own use of money before they start making further cuts to services/imposing further tax rises.