Cultured Views

I may have written about this issue a short time ago but it appears the problem of some parents using our local library as a free babysitting service has grown worse. What bothers me is that our community is in dire danger of losing our wonderful little library to govt spending cuts. Apparently a library has to be ‘viable’ nowadays, not just provide a vital service to the community – this is why you now see libraries featuring coffee shops, it is a disgrace because you go to a library to read, study, work and borrow books, not to stuff your face with muffins and slurp on lattes…

Last week I noticed once again the problem of noisy local school kids commandeering the tables and chairs of the library, spreading their bags all over the floorspace (which is a danger for the elderly), yapping loudly, eating, running in and out to the toilets repeatedly and comparing text messages on their phones (which should be confiscated as they go in as far as I’m concerned). Ours is only a small library – one big room – and in the afternoons it turns into an after-school social club. Nothing wrong with this but for the fact that the atmosphere in the place tends to send those in search of a little peace and quiet back to their car. After having tripped over two school bags, asked a group of squealing girls to pipe down (sod the little darlings human rights) and looked in vain for a chair to sit on that did not have several school bags or pile of school jackets thrown over it I called it a day and took my chosen book to the desk. The librarian was busy taking complaints from a couple who were fed up with the library being turned into a playground…“Where are the parents of these kids?” they were demanding to know. I know how they felt. The problem is if these complaints go further, and number enough, the local board will deem the library too much bother and we will lose it.

I fear it might be too late – we lose a much needed library and a group of selfish parents will lose their free babysitting service.

Related posts:

1. When the local library becomes a childminding service.
2. Save Ballyhackamore Library and a pox on Libraries NI!
3. Did the credit crunch affect the local building trade…?