A recent increase in the amount of free time I have available started me looking for new strings to my bow – and reactivating my library membership was one early step (writing articles for Bylines was another). I’d fallen into the trap of thinking that library use was principally about popping down to my local branch library and taking out a couple of books. A bit of digging around has shown just how wrong I was.
Libraries: use them or lose them
Libraries are a statutory local authority service, but their use is declining – the number of visits is falling, as is the percentage of the population making use of them – and as their use declines, so does their funding. Cuts to local authority budgets have increased the pressure on the service, and many councils have closed some branch libraries, or handed them over to community groups to run. It’s important though, not to overstate the size of any decline – as a DCMS report stated:
“Libraries remain an important facet of life in England. In the financial year 2016 to 2017, libraries in England received more than 205 million physical visits, more than visits to Premier League football games, A&E services, and the cinema combined. Libraries are also omnipresent: there are more library service points in England than Costa Coffee restaurants or Boots pharmacies.”
The Reading Agency reported, in 2020:
- There are 3,667 public libraries (including mobile libraries) in the UK.
- There are 7.3 million active borrowers at libraries in the UK.
- 214 million visits to public libraries took place across the year, with an additional 131 million total online visits.
- Libraries issue almost 165 million books a year.
- There are 14,925 staff working in public libraries.
- There were 50,128 volunteers working in libraries in 2019/20.
It is also worth emphasising that authors are paid for the books that are taken out of libraries, under the Public Lending Right – up to a ceiling of £6,600 a year per author – so using a library is not equivalent to stealing from authors.
I live in Leeds – which has 37 local libraries and the large Central Library. All the examples I give here are based on what Leeds has to offer, but I’ve looked at other authorities’ websites and they all have very similar library services.
Visit your local library
Your local branch is the place to go to arrange your library membership and passcode. Your membership number can then be used to access further services as you will see below (sometimes, in Leeds, the number needs to be prefixed by LDP to access online services). At your local library, you can borrow and return books (loans can be extended online unless the book has been reserved).
You can also pick up and return books that you have reserved online – these are brought in from other libraries across the city and you will be told when they arrive. This increases the number of books available to you enormously (to 327,974 separate titles in Leeds – in a range of languages). Local libraries will also, usually, have computers that you can use, a reading area, local display information, and a programme of events. And toilets.
Make use of the Leeds Libraries website
This is where things start to get more interesting – and surprising. Once you’ve logged on using your membership details, go to the ‘Search, Reserve, Renew’ page. Search for anything – author, or book title. To choose the format you want or a particular genre – use the Advanced Search option. For example, there are 5674 Politics books in English – enough to keep most Bylines readers going for a while.
You can then reserve a book, and it will be taken to your nearest branch library for you to pick up. You choose your preferred local branch as part of your profile. You can also reserve e-books and audiobooks – which are downloaded into your BorrowBox app (see below). Reader group boxes of 10 books are available for your local book club.
Accessible through the music library section of the website are links to Medici TV and the Naxos Music Library – providing hours of free classical music, ballet, opera, documentaries and master classes – TV programmes and recordings – you just need to enter your library membership number.
Download apps linked to your Library membership
Your library membership number will link your account to two very useful apps – both of which are free downloads for both iOS and Android devices.
The BorrowBox app enables you to read e-books and listen to audiobooks which you have downloaded from the library website, or chosen from within the app.
The Libby app gives access to 10,000 different magazines and graphic novels, which are available to download and keep on your digital ‘shelf’ within the app for 7 days. Whether you’re interested in the Good Food Magazine, The New Yorker, Trail Magazine or Hello!, or maybe in Cthulhu Cat or The Amazing Spiderman – there’s a magazine or graphic novel for you.
Libby also links to Pressreader which gives you access to hundreds of newspapers from around the world (including many which are usually behind paywalls). These can then be read article by article. It is best to use Pressreader in the webpage that opens from Libby, rather than downloading the Pressreader app, for a more seamless experience. The connection with your library membership number needs refreshing every 30 days but that’s a small price to pay.
Visit Leeds Central Library
The main library has additional services. The Business and Intellectual Property Centre can offer free advice to new and growing businesses.
The Arts Floor has libraries and resources covering Music & Performing arts (see link above), and Art, as well as a Drawing Room, Exhibition Space and Studio12 – a free digital media project for people aged 16–30.
For children, there is the Tiny Totley play space for the under 5s as well as events geared to promote reading. New parents shouldn’t miss their free Bookstart pack from the Booktrust charity.
Finally the Library organises exhibitions – which this summer will feature football related fanzines – The Voice of the Fans.
I hope this piece will encourage people to get out and make more use their library, and all its facilities. They are a fantastic resource, and we should show that we appreciate them by using them. When you’ve exhausted all of the above you can turn your attention to Archive.org, and its Wayback Machine – but that’s a whole other story.
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