Kirklees residents saved millions of pounds within 12 months by using the district’s library services.
At the latest meeting of Kirklees’ Full Council, a presentation was given by Strategic Director for Adults and Health, Richard Parry, about the district’s library services. Mr Parry said that people in Kirklees have saved themselves £10m over the past year from using the services. This figure takes into account the cost of the books and online material that has been used.
He spoke of the value of libraries and explained that the service does a lot more than provide books and are one of the few public service buildings that people can walk into without an appointment with nobody questioning why they are there. He said that the 24 libraries across the district have issued 925,000 items and had 838,000 visitors.
Mr Parry added that libraries in Kirklees don’t fine people for returning books late and said that the council was the second authority in the country to stop doing so.
Kirklees Council has acknowledged the importance of its libraries in its recent budget proposals and has set aside some cash to ensure the district’s 24 services are maintained. The libraries will continue their role as warm spaces and providers of advice and services as well as a place to access books and the internet.
Councillors were quick to sing the services’ praises and told of how libraries had impacted them. Cllr Paul Davies (Labour, Holme Valley South) said: “For me, libraries are at the very heart of what we do for the reasons that you’ve already identified. I think that sense of having something within your community that you feel part of and able to access and that inclusivity where everybody is treated as an equal where there are no barriers and there certainly should be nobody feeling that they’re in the wrong place.”
Cllr John Taylor (Con, Kirkheaton) who volunteers at his local libraries said: “I love the thought that you can go into your library and nobody asks why you’re there.” However, Cllr Taylor expressed concern about the limited hours libraries are open.
He said: “If I do have an ask, my worry about the libraries is the hours that they’re open. I accept that we can’t have them open 24/7 but both libraries in my patch at the moment are not open after 5 pm and open two hours on a Saturday morning.
“Those of you who have children or grandchildren will probably know that Saturday morning is when you’re either parent’s taxi or grandparent’s taxi. So the actual time when a parent can get their child to a library or they can get to a library themselves if they work full time – it’s just not there. We need to think again about the hours we have our libraries open.”
Cllr Andrew Pinnock (Lib Dems, Cleckheaton) who is a professional librarian said: “I do think that we underestimate what libraries can do at our peril. I spent most of my career working in a commercial and technical library so I know first hand the importance of dealing with information as well as books…but the important thing about libraries has already been mentioned. They’re not judging you.
“You can just walk in and you will have a safe space in which you can study and so on but the Kirklees system needs to be able to do all of these things. I’m going to echo to some extent what Cllr Taylor has said, we haven’t got enough hours and when I look particularly at Cleckheaton library which in my head would be a full-time library in other words, ought to be open about 50 hours a week.
“It’s nowhere near that at the moment and in fact it’s closed one whole day. We need to have facilities that are available as long as possible.”
Cllr Lesley Warner (Independent, Colne Valley) highlighted the good work done at her local library to combat loneliness amongst elderly people. She said: She said: “We now have an action-packed day on a Thursday where so many lonely old people come…there are so many friendships being built. The whole thing is a real buzz.”
