The Good Library Blog

The number of children’s books borrowed has risen in each of the last four years, with a modest 0.2% increase in 2007-8, but an increase nonetheless.

We don’t believe book lending statistics should be the only measure of libraries’ impact. But improved book lending tends to be linked to other success factors.

It is no coincidence that the rise in children’s borrowing has followed better investment in libraries’ reading services for children and families, than for adults. Children’s librarians are clear that reading is central to their mission. And tellingly, there has been an explosion of reading activities – author events, story times, reading groups, challenges, book awards, promotions…We’re proud of the contribution the Summer Reading Challenge is making to the turn around. 690,000 children took part in ‘Team Read’ last summer and 2.8 million books were borrowed as a result.

There is no doubt in our minds that the reversal of the downward trend in children’s loans has happened because of a combination of local and national developments to create a much livelier, appealing offer to children. Powerful local partnership work coupled with big national interventions like the Summer Reading Challenge and Booktrust’s BookStart, and investment in new books has all helped.

So can we now write the same success story in adults’ books? As the recession cuts deeper, there is already evidence of growth in library use. Last year’s National Year of Reading created 2.3 million new library members.

I agree with you in this.

I don't think it's too hard to know what the "success factors" are for adult reading in libraries-- if a person finds something that they would like to read, they will do so. If it suits them to borrow it, rather than sit and read it in the library, or rather than buy a copy in a shop, then they will probably borrow it, if the library doesn't make too much fuss. Wide range, agreeable surroundings, long opening hours- and no fuss- are the keys. Experience shows that they always work. While events are important for many reasons, I think for the adult population, for each, what they read is a quite private thing, there is less interest in public sharing of the enjoyment, events are less essential, but good nevertheless. The resource needs to be spent on improved ranges-- a lot of resource, because the collections have become poor; each extra title is a chance to 'include' a new reader.

Of course reading is for many a private thing, and rightly so. But the evidence is that it’s becoming more social too – festival audiences are growing, there’s a huge appetite for reading challenges, author events and things like One City One Read; and there has been an explosion in library linked reading groups (we mapped this last year and groups have nearly trebled since 2004 – 10,000 now)

Your stance assumes that everyone knows how to choose and find what they want to read; indeed that they feel motivated and unafraid to read in the first place. Lots of the invaluable work libraries do is about actively reaching out and helping those most in need of reading support and inspiration.It’s tackling some big social problems and making a big difference to people’s life chances. We’ve just got a case study back from Northern Ireland – about James, a boy in one of our Chatterbooks reading groups. He was very unkeen on reading, and that was causing problems; being in a library Chatterbooks group has totally turned his attitude round – his parents are relieved and astonished: “Maureen at Ballyhackamore library who runs James’ Chatterbooks group has been fantastic. She really understands the children’s ability, and what will stretch them. We didn’t think that first book would be right for him, but now he is going from strength to strength. Chatterbooks has helped his confidence no end. He’s now far more likely to tackle bigger books. That’s been a big sea-change. James has continued to read on his own – in fact last night, around 10pm when he should have been asleep, he came to me and said that he couldn’t put the book he was reading down!”

For confident readers, there’s also evidence that sharing reading with others – through reading groups, author events etc – helps people widen and deepen their reading, and take them in unexpected directions. And that they hugely value that experience.

Since supporting and growing habits of reading is core to libraries’ raison d’etre, we think libraries need to do both – have a fantastic book stock and invest in ways of connecting people to it, ie play an active not a purely passive role. Resource needs to be found for both these aspects of such a crucial role.

That said, it keeps looking as if libraries are being made into a quick-fix for shortcomings in the education system. Librarians are terrific - and it's dismaying that reference and music librarians are being whittled down - but they have to be librarians and not turned into a replacement for the teachers who are wearying of the bureaucracy of the education system. Librarians are a marvellous guide but it cannot be their job to become de facto remedial teachers. It's asking too much of people who are not made in any princely way. But a good librarian is a priceless inspiration.

If there is "education, education, education", then this should be preparing pupils to enjoy bountiful libraries after they leave school. It has also struck me repeatedly how students who have had recourse to some pretty good libraries are then expected to subsist upon the books in public libraries now. Indeed Brighton and Hove does not get what is deemed "academic".

In talking with hundreds of people - street after street - I keep hearing about books, books, books. There's a craving for that deep content which comes with finding a congenial author of whatever sort.