I was never a good student, in fact I was a very bad reader when I was little. My mam didn't have time to help us read and I remember struggling at school. But I always loved going to the library, mostly with my school. There was always something really exciting about seeing so many books in one place. I would always make a bee line for the collection of children's annuals, my favourites were the ones about kids TV programmes such as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles and Captain Planet. They were a bit ragged, some had scribbles in them, but it was better than nothing, which was what we had at home.
My dad left my mam when I was 6 years old. We hardly saw him after that. When I was 10 my mam met a man who moved in with us. He was ok at first, but became very violent and abusive, to her and to us kids. It wasn't a happy home life for me and my sisters. My older sisters would spend more time at their friends and boyfriends but I didn't really have anywhere other than my gran's, but she didn't live close, so instead I'd walk to our town centre after school and at weekends and go to the library.
I remember just loving how quiet it was. I didn't have to fight for the TV remote, or make myself heard over all the voices at home. It was also a safe place to be, for a few hours at least. This continued well into my teens, even when other activities such as boys and drinking started to take over and even after my mam's boyfriend had left, which he did when I was 14. I'd go after school, even though my school had a library of it's own (I hated school and couldn't wait to get out of there at half three) and started to become a big reader. I'd even do some homework when I could be bothered and was the only one of my siblings to get enough GCSE passes to go to college and do an NVQ.
I'm now 26 and still read loads, at least a book a week. It may not be what most people call classic literature - I love Catherine Cookson, Robert Rankin and anything by Stephen King and I love the fact that I now live in a house where there are plenty of books. But I still visit the library. I have two children of my own and they go to Story Times, percussion groups and mother and baby groups, all in the library and even though they can't read yet, they love looking at the picture books.
It would be a real shame if other people were to miss out on libraries in the future. I know it helped me a lot and it is already helping my kids.
Not only a social or cultural amenity, libraries are of course a means of reducing paper usage, as sharing resources is part of the practice. More than 450 libraries across the UK are currently threatened with closure and today is Save Our Libraries Day, with campaigns and events being held all over the country. If you haven't visited your local library for some time, why not pop in today and make use of the facilities, perhaps while you still can.
Check out the following sites for more information.
http://www.voicesforthelibrary.org.uk/wordpress/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12367392
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/culture-cuts-blog/2011/feb/05/save-our-libraries-day-live-coverage
Image: jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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