Library – Love or Loathe?

[Gannon]

@ Simworm and Fran. If I do win lotto, I will wait until the library/shop is finished and then I will fly you all over. The coffee and cake etc will be free and everyone will leave with a free book of their choice. I will let you know when I win.

[Simworm]

@ Simworm and Fran. If I do win lotto, I will wait until the library/shop is finished and then I will fly you all over. The coffee and cake etc will be free and everyone will leave with a free book of their choice. I will let you know when I win.

Sounds like an awesome plan! Can't wait!

[TagBag]

most of time, i just borrow the books i want
but if i found some book very good, then i would like purchase it

[Fran]

@ Simworm and Fran. If I do win lotto, I will wait until the library/shop is finished and then I will fly you all over. The coffee and cake etc will be free and everyone will leave with a free book of their choice. I will let you know when I win.

Wow I'll be packing in anticipation ...
'everyone will leave with a free book of their choice' ... somehow I doubt you'll give us a free run at your awesome collection of 1st editions & signed copies bet it will be the paperback shelves we'll get to choose from!

[Gannon]

@ Simworm and Fran. If I do win lotto, I will wait until the library/shop is finished and then I will fly you all over. The coffee and cake etc will be free and everyone will leave with a free book of their choice. I will let you know when I win.

Wow I'll be packing in anticipation ...
'everyone will leave with a free book of their choice' ... somehow I doubt you'll give us a free run at your awesome collection of 1st editions & signed copies bet it will be the paperback shelves we'll get to choose from!

Too right Fran nobody gets their hands on my 1st edition collection. However you will be able to choose hardcover, not just the paperbacks.
Now if I can just figure out what numbers are going to come up. Should not be too hard there are plenty to choose from.

[Lita]

Library lover when I was in the US I would go to the library every Wednesday and take books home to read for the week... but now that I'm back in my country, and there are no libraries, can't do that anymore lol
plus, the books are too expensive... so online reading for me *sobs*

[Bighuey]

I can relate to that. Theres no libraries here, either. I have to settle for mail order books or e books.

[Maud Fitch]

Thank you for your great responses. It was interesting reading your comments!

To date, it appears from the Poll that we are still 50/50 on where we obtain our reading material.
According to library and publisher stats, books and e-books will run parallel for approximately 30 years.

I'm a library lover and not just for books. My local library can supply many other things and it's FREE.
I don't want to see this kind of public facility disappear. Sure, everything will be on the internet but with the likes of Google and Amazon, how long before we have to pay for access to all information?
A bit like our telco supplier, offering a free service then when a consumer is hooked, they bring in charges. Do you feel manipulated in your choices?

Libraries need patrons to get funding to operate and recently Egyptian youths formed a human chain around the building to vouchsafe their national library and its treasures. And in India, a university community used passive resistance against reduced opening hours. In Wales there's huge debate raging to save their libraries yet sadly many have closed. In my State of Queensland we have the biggest library patronage in Australia but I've yet to find out why!

Our world is always evolving but I guess I see a library as a storehouse, a repository of human endeavour, a safehouse for books, not placed there to earn money but to reassure us that we have a legacy, a heritage worth preserving in physical form.

[Fran]

Our world is always evolving but I guess I see a library as a storehouse, a repository of human endeavour, a safehouse for books, not placed there to earn money but to reassure us that we have a legacy, a heritage worth preserving in physical form.

Superbly put as ever Maud.
Now I have to share this, by coincidence I was reading this while commuting this morning:
"The legacy of past generations can now be kept on a piece of software and flashed up on the screen with a tweak of the mouse.
Something is missing from that. What is missing is the personal relationship, the love between writer and reader, all the hope and the horror the writer has to tell you. It is you and the writer alone, together, that will give you understanding about the joy and fear, the jealousy and love you have with your parents and your sisters and brothers. ..... Let us not abandon all the great thought in these rooms to the proposition of putting all our faith into an inpersonal machine. By so doing, we will become something less than human beings ourselves".
- Leon Uris A God in Ruins

[Ghastlies]

never in my life have i been to an efficient library. the library near my house is just like a dump of old text books donated by people who don't use them anymore. but there is a small section for children's story books (some of which i find as interesting as i find books appropriate for my age). other than tha t, that library does not in any way give me a spark, an inspiration, an ignition or ANYTHING whatsoever to influence my literary growth.

at least our bookstore has novels.

[Fran]

never in my life have i been to an efficient library. the library near my house is just like a dump of old text books donated by people who don't use them anymore. but there is a small section for children's story books (some of which i find as interesting as i find books appropriate for my age). other than tha t, that library does not in any way give me a spark, an inspiration, an ignition or ANYTHING whatsoever to influence my literary growth.

at least our bookstore has novels.

That's a terrible pity ... my local library is brilliant, well organised, efficient, obliging and they have an excellent online presence also. We are fortunate here in Ireland, over the years I've been a member of a number of different libraries and I can honestly say all were superb.

[Robin jackson]

i love reading books again and again that's why i like to buy books loaning is not good for me

[Maud Fitch]

Our world is always evolving but I guess I see a library as a storehouse, a repository of human endeavour, a safehouse for books, not placed there to earn money but to reassure us that we have a legacy, a heritage worth preserving in physical form.

Superbly put as ever Maud.
Now I have to share this, by coincidence I was reading this while commuting this morning:
"The legacy of past generations can now be kept on a piece of software and flashed up on the screen with a tweak of the mouse.
Something is missing from that. What is missing is the personal relationship, the love between writer and reader, all the hope and the horror the writer has to tell you. It is you and the writer alone, together, that will give you understanding about the joy and fear, the jealousy and love you have with your parents and your sisters and brothers. ..... Let us not abandon all the great thought in these rooms to the proposition of putting all our faith into an inpersonal machine. By so doing, we will become something less than human beings ourselves".
- Leon Uris A God in Ruins

Fran, your post gave me goose bumps. Coincidence strikes again - Go Leon!

To quote from Jasper Fforde "Thursday Next finds herself the target of a series of potentially lethal coincidences and saves the day with a Coincidence Magnet". Fiction yes, but there's a force out there we cannot control. <cue the creepy music> Let's hope, by sheer coincidence, millions of people decide to visit their local library today.

[Gannon]

Never fear Maud, once I open my library/book store it will be open 24/7 and it will never close. E-readers, kindles etc must be left at the door. In time it will grow and grow and become the biggest and the best in the world. People will come from all over the globe to study and gaze in awe at the millions of books surrounding them.

All jokes aside. As much as I love libraries, I think they are eventually going to follow the dinosaur into history. We have a beautiful library in my town and I have noticed over the last couple of years that patronage is dwindling. I do not know what the answer is, or even if there is an answer. Maybe it is just evolution. Just as reading and writing materials changed and evolved throughout history(scrolls, papyrus, codices etc). E-readers may just be the new format and will eventually replace books completely.

Being a true and utter bibliophile, this saddens me very very much. However I think that the writing is on the wall(or should that be the screen ). I always keep my fingers crossed that books don't disappear forever.

[Fran]

@Gannon
Regrettably I think you are probably right but that will just mean that your library will become 'a wonder of the World' in due course ... so get those Lotto numbers played! You'll compete with Ayers Rock for visitors!

On an optomistic note though I think e-readers may actually increase the numbers reading in that younger kids (especially boys) are inclined to feel that being seen with a book is not cool and they fear being labelled 'a nerd' but using an electronic device may be seen as 'with it'. So maybe there is an upside ... lets not be too pessimistic.