Sounds like a lovely library experience at Farnham – for some – and quite cosy too for the staff it seems…. and there’s nothing wrong with that. But what is the sense in a bit of a teenage area, with a “a coffee machine just around the corner. You’re allowed to eat in here, you can use the free wi-fi, and there’s enough space for several people to be at the same time. We’re not going to come over and insist that you use the space exclusively to do coursework or reading. We want to encourage people to see us as somewhere they’re welcome” …. whenthe teenagers it’s meant to attract cant get anywhere near that area on a Sunday; beyond 6pm 3 days a week; beyond 7pm twice a week or beyond 5pm once a week. Here’s the current opening hours:

Monday – 9am – 6pm
Tuesday- 9am – 7pm
Wednesday – 9am – 6pm
Thursday – 9am – 7pm
Friday – 9am – 6pm
Saturday – 9am – 5pm
Sunday – CLOSED

If the management were thinking outside the box the same hours could be used more creatively to allow later opening a couple of times a week – perhaps exclusively for teens (as we have adults only times in swimming pools) – perhaps a gaming / social networking sector could be set aside for those that want to use it; maybe with the support of the local RoundTable or Rotary Club budding young entrepreneurs could have a weekly Dragon’s Den style workshop. There’s more to teenage culture than vampires. All it would take is opening a little later on the quietest two weekday mornings to allow them to reallocate the hours.

Sounds more like teen lip service than real and determined outreach by Surrey libraries service to me!

To quote our recent Prometheus paper….. “If you open the doors, they won’t necessarily come!”
Stuart

Foods based one recipe, but prepared using ingredients inherent to another, are described as ‘fusion cuisine’. One such is marketed as ‘Taco Pizza’, It’s made with cheddar and pepper jack cheese, salsa, refried beans and other common taco ingredients. The Italians would not recognise it as pizza at all.

By the same token, the core purpose of the public library has been adulterated, viz: “I’d say books are now less than half of what libraries are about these days. We’re someone you can turn to without having to go to the CAB or social services,” Heather points out.”

It may be appealing to library staff to be asked to engage in Social Work Lite and all the other extra-curricular jobs they are now expected to do within their ‘community hub’ but, as their role as specialists is relentlessly eroded, they will find themselves replaced by non-Librarians or, probably, given the current climate, by well-meaning unpaid volunteers.

Farnham Library does sound like a wonderful library, doing much to promote reading by means of its dedicated staff. Long may that last.

But, please – users of libraries want quality *libraries* in which their core purpose merits more than a byline. The profession’s stance is therefore in opposition to users. It seems to aspire to entirely different things. Is it pragmatism – are they “saving” libraries and jobs by any means possible? Or is the explanation that Librarians and library staff were bored to death before public libraries were hollowed out and required to diversify ?

Taco Pizza sounds utterly revolting – yet it is what the public is more and more being forced to digest. Those forcing the concoction into our mouths should not include the library profession.

http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2013/02/guest-post-farnham-library-a-fairytale-library-in-the-internet-age.html