Library poll analysis

[slemslempike]

I didn't actually know that it was random poll day yesterday (apparently), but anyway. In general, people prefer to have their series matching. Which is good, because I was feeling a little strange and shallow at buying replacements of books I already had, just so that they would match.

I forgot to have a box for "no library membership", but counting up the responses, it looks like everyone was able to tick at least one box. Unsurprisingly, the most popular membership was to a local library, just under 92%. Then place of study (student heavy flist), and another town, which I guess is because of studenthood as well. I have memberships for Manchester libraries, Peterborough libraries, and Lancashire libraries (although I don't know that the last one's still current). In my life, I have had one workplace membership (which is now), five for places of study (including my various schools), four for town/county and three private libraries. The last were when we lived in Qatar, and we didn't have access to public libraries (I don't know if there were any - I assume there were). So expats had very small 'libraries' in their private clubs, and there was the British Council as well.

Around 60% of us use the library less than when we were little, in most cases a lot less. Only about 10% of everyone uses the library more than when they were little. A few people said in comments that when they were little they were taken to the library quite a lot to satiate their reading habits, and I guess that most people have less time to read when they're older. Also, the vast majority of respondents prefer to own their own books, and more than half said that the library didn't have what they want. (A teeeny tiiiny minorty thought I should get on with my work. I didn't.) Also, I suppose that most people have more means to buy their own books now - I would have preferred to own my own books as a child, but that wasn't always possible.

Only one person is a librarian at the moment, although at least one other person works in a library without counting themselves a librarian, and two trainees (librarian/digital archivist). Half of respondants either volunteer or used to volunteer in a library though. We have many more ex-booksellers than we do ex-librarians. I suppose it's a more transient job - doesn't need training, and easier to do as a part-time role. And you get discounts. From the other jobs, I completely forgot about publishing! And writing! And, come to think of it, academia.

I volunteered in my school library when I was eleven, because if you did that then you got an extra library ticket. This was good. Then I did my year 10 work experience in the Schools Library Service. I enjoyed it, but mostly because I spent a lot of time hiding in the rolling stacks and reading. This was also when I got to read The Marlows and the Traitor for the first time - the library system had lost their copy, but the woman I was working with was also an AF fan, and really kindly lent me her copies of TMATT, as well as The Thursday Kidnapping. I got to travel in the mobile library van. When I was sixteen I got a job as a Saturday assistant in a library, but they delayed my start date by three months, and in the meantime I got a job in the new Waterstones that opened, which was more hours, more money, and DISCOUNT. Yay! When I went to University I became the book buyer of the secondhand textbook section of the corner shop, and in my holidays I volunteered at Peakirk Books, which was fantastic and is responsible for the majority of my collection. I was 21 before I had a job that didn't involve books. Except that that was doing admin in a nursery and I took it upon myself to design a database for their books. So really, the first non-book job I had was when I went to do doc control on a building site when I was 22.

Comments

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

My dual library membership isn't anything to do with studenthood, it's because I live in one county and work in another. This is rather handy, as the town I work in has a library with altogether more books and music and a room with comfy chairs you can eat your lunch in. I'm practically living in it.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

That library sounds great - I haven't managed to check out my local library yet, although I've been in the city centre one a few times. I wasn't particularly impressed with their selection of books, though.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

It's still not as good a general library as the one where my parents live, although I could be remembering that one with advantages. I know that the SF&F shelf was bigger in my parents' library (4 wide vertical sections x 5 shelves, plus a rotating thing for paperbacks as against 4 narrower sections x 4 shelves and no rotating thing) but the biography may be better here. I can't remember the sizes of general fiction or non-fiction.

I have discovered recently that they'll let you borrow things from what used to be the reference library, which increases the number of available books as long as you don't mind having very plain 1950s editions of everything.

My strategy for smaller libraries is to forget what I actually intended to read and just wander round to let myself be tempted by things. It's not so good for planning, but you get books either way, and it does actually demonstrate that people use libraries.

[jeejeen.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid I went to the library every Saturday.

I think, technically, that I use the public library less now, but when I'm a student, I use the library all day every day, either virtually or physically.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

When I'm back in Lancaster I'll probably use the town library a lot more again, they have quite a good selection of fiction, and it got me through a summer job with not a lot to do. It was great, I read things I'd meant to read for ages but kept getting distracted from. I read Daniel Deronda, Anna Karenina, Wuthering Heights and lots of chicklit.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

I volunteered in my school library, and then in my College and Department libraries when I was a student. No particular benefits, except the fun of doing it. I suppose you could say that I volunteered in my home town library as well: when I was about 12, I would re-shelve their opera recordings in order each week when I went in.

My bookshop experience was just volunteering in the school bookshop. I don't think I enjoyed that in quite the same way, though I do remember my mental arithmetic being absolutely wonderful after a while of working there.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I liked covering the books to protect them, and stamping them out. That was fun, if inky.

[pescana.livejournal.com]

I completely forgot that I worked in the library when I was in college. I was supposed to be shelving books, but I was more often to be found sitting in the stacks reading the books instead.

I volunteered at my elementary school library when I was 11, too. That one I did remember. I finished a four-week reading assignment overnight, so the teacher sent me to the library every day instead of going to reading class. I loved that.

I always wanted to work at a bookstore, but I never managed to get hired anywhere. Going away to school put a big crimp in my summer job opportunities.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I was allowed to go to the library every day in junior school as well as the twice a week sessions we had, but I kept getting books confiscated for reading instead of working. And my class teacher got shirty if I read things too quickly for her liking. Or took out Asterix books.

Bookshops are good except for the customers who come in and clearly don't love books enough, yet you're still expected to be civil to them. Pah.