Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Library

  • Reading – Reading Central Library

    Reading – Reading Central Library

    I like to pop in the library in any town or city that I visit, so that I can comment on whether or not I’m happy with their selection of books. Another one of my little services to the local community…..

    What a lovely welcome. There seems to be a substantial proportion of books in foreign languages, more than I’ve seen even in libraries such as Stratford in Newham when I lived there (in Newham I mean, I didn’t live in the library). I did like though that the library offers free online courses to learn foreign languages for those who are library members, which I think is a nice mixture of things.

    I’d say that these opening hours are somewhat inadequate, for anyone who works nine until five on weekdays then they’re going to struggle to ever get here. Closing at 15.00 on a Saturday and being closed on Wednesdays and Sundays really isn’t ideal. There’s a comparison possible here between Reading in the United States (which is named after this town) and Reading in the United Kingdom, with the latter having the twice the population. Despite that, the central library in Reading in Pennsylvania is open from 09.00 until 21.00 on Mondays to Wednesdays, from 13.00 until 19.00 on Thursdays, from 09.00 until 17.00 on Fridays and Saturdays and from 13.00 until 17.00 on Sundays.

    The library goes over the Holy Brook river channel.

    I went to the second floor and noted that the local history library opened at 11.00, and since it was 10.55 I meandered back to the first floor selection of books. It seemed adequate and there was plenty of seating available.

    On getting to the local history library, I think it’s actually open earlier and it’s just the specialist collections at the family history section that open at 11.00. Either way, this is a very decent collection of books, plenty of local history reference books and also some to be taken out of the library as well. Nearly no-one came up to the floor during my time in the library, so it doesn’t seem to be the busiest section in the building, but at least that will stop bits of the collection from being stolen.

    My first impressions might not have been the best, but I was pleased in the end that it was a peaceful library which seemed organised and well stocked. Oh, and most importantly, they had a Pevsner.

  • Royal Leamington Spa – Library

    Royal Leamington Spa – Library

    I visited Warwick library yesterday and it’s fair to say that that wasn’t the most memorable of visits. But I’ll moan about that another time. I was much more engaged with the public library at Royal Leamington Spa, which is located in what was the swimming pool of the Royal Pump Rooms. The building has thoughtfully been turned into something of a complex which has numerous functions, including an art gallery, museum, library, cafe and tourist information office.

    The upstairs area of the library, with plenty of seating and also a substantial collection of local history books, something which I very much approve of. With a little imagination I can see this as a swimming pool and it has retained its light and bright feel. Here’s a photo of what it looked like not that long ago as it only became a library in 1999 (it was in use as a swimming pool between 1890 and 1989) – https://www.ourwarwickshire.org.uk/content/catalogue_wow/leamington-spa-swimming-baths. Apparently the old steps into the swimming pool are still there, they just go into the basement of the library now where the stores are.

    The library has Pevsner, a key measure of a competent library as far as I’m concerned. Indeed, the selection of books was broad and I was quite impressed by how everything had been set-out, this felt like a well managed library. The staff seemed to spend nearly all of their time dealing with questions about why the printer didn’t work, but they remained helpful and engaged by the whole thing. Incidentally, I liked that all of the tables have readily accessible power points, that’s a useful touch for how people use libraries today.

    All really rather lovely, delightful to find a library which has plenty of seating space, wi-fi, power, lots of local history books and an environment which isn’t stupidly loud.

  • Barnsley – New Central Library

    Barnsley – New Central Library

    The council demolished the town’s central library a few years ago and they promised they would replace it, which they’ve now done and the new building opened in 2019 in the heart of Barnsley’s Light Box regeneration area. I normally cringe when I see that a new library has been constructed, as too often they’re worse than what they replaced, but the arrangement here wasn’t as bad as I feared.

    As is partly visible here, I was impressed at how much seating there was, with power sockets readily available.

    Everything felt modern, although it’s not the most inspiring of buildings given that it looks like an office block.

    The maps collection, probably not used that much, but it’s a very useful resource for a library to have, especially when it’s presented neatly like this.

    I don’t know how true this is, but a member of library staff told a visitor that this chair made out of cardboard cost the council £750 and they’ve put it in the corner so that no-one sits in it. I have no further comment to add about this.

    Clever, use an environmental reason to justify just leaving the exposed concrete on the stairways. The signage in the building is appalling though, I’m not sure why they need to keep it a secret of where things are located. However, the fiction section is on the first floor and the reference section is on the second floor, that’s the main divide.

    I was suitably impressed by the entire set-up, with the staff being friendly, although there seemed to be a lot of them and they frequently looked bored. There’s plenty of space, lots of seats, a decent selection of local history books and a clean environment which was quiet. I say quiet, the public were quiet, the staff seemed to want to create an atmosphere more akin to a busy pub, but it’s easy to be critical…… Having written that, I went to look at the reviews of the library and this seems to be a common problem, so I think someone’s suggestion of a quiet area for the staff to sit in might be a useful benefit.

    I can’t imagine that this library came cheap, but these things should perhaps always be a little expensive to do properly (although I’d rather they spent more money on books rather than decadent furniture).