Yesterday I dispatched a missive on this very blog about how I, if someone were to have accidentally left me in charge, would run Hampshire’s libraries to increase their usage – not manage their decline.
I did conclude, though, that it wasn’t all the council’s fault. Despite being a member for nine months, I’ve only actually borrowed one book – and I should be doing better.
But today, instead of the usual nagging feeling I have which urges me to pop back here and delete whatever it is I’ve written, I wondered just how fair I’d been to myself.
If I’d have abandoned Amazon over the last 12 months and used the library instead, could I have read the same selection?
I don’t for a second think that my reading habits are ‘normal’, but neither do I think they’re that out of the ordinary either. I’ve a penchant for ‘bullshit to make your life better’ books, I’ll give you that, but otherwise it’s pretty straight up stuff.
And I have to admit, I completely didn’t expect what I found.
It turns out that there’s a very comprehensive collection and plenty of copies of each book – and most are also available at my local library too. I’ve done a list below, if you’re interested.
So in short, I was right. We should use our libraries more. But I was also right that the people running libraries shouldn’t be overseeing their demise because people aren’t using them – they should be asking why people aren’t using them, and fixing that instead.
My suggestions might just help.
Could I have used the library instead?
| Book Title and Author | Read Date | Available in Hampshire? | Available in Alton? |
|---|---|---|---|
| How to Be a Productivity Ninja: Worry Less, Achieve More and Love What You Do – Allcott, Graham | 18/02/16 | Yes | Yes |
| So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed – Ronson, Jon | 15/02/16 | Yes | No(1) |
| Balancing Act – Trollope, Joanna | 11/02/2016 | Yes | Yes |
| The Establishment: And How They Get Away with It – Jones, Owen | Abandoned | Yes | Yes |
| The PR Masterclass: How to Develop a Public Relations Strategy That Works! – Singleton, Alex | 17/01/2016 | No | N/A |
| According to Yes – French, Dawn | 11/12/2015 | Yes | Yes |
| A Prayer for Owen Meany – Irving, John | 29/10/2015 | Yes | No(1) |
| Pay Me Forty Quid and I’ll Tell You – Culwick, Michael Ashcroft & Kev | 28/10/2015 | No | No |
| The Unfinished Revolution: How the Modernisers Saved the Labour Party – Gould, Philip [Borrowed from Hampshire Libraries] | 03/10/2015 | Yes | No(1) |
| Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse: And Other Lessons from Modern Life – Mitchell, David | 03/10/2015* | Yes | Yes |
| The Virgin Way: Everything I Know About Leadership – Branson, Richard | 09/08/2016 | Yes | No(1) |
(1) Book wasn’t available in Alton but could be requested and collected a few days later.
Photo credit: carnagenyc via Foter.com / CC BY-NC
