SPECIAL REPORT: Falling back in love with the library - it's much more than just books

As a child I used to love going into the library. The excitement of finding a new book and immersing myself in a story (usually an Enid Blyton) would transport me off to another time and place.

I’ve never lost my love of reading or books but, with everything so accessible online now, I think many of us forget about the library.

Indeed, many libraries as we knew them closed under county council cuts, instead being replaced by community, volunteer-run or mobile libraries.

Others, such as Spalding’s library, are now run by Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL) - a charitable social enterprise, contracted by Lincolnshire County Council.

I, like a number of people, had moved away from using the library over time. It was only when I was researching an article for our ‘What’s in a Name’ features that I popped over to the Spalding library in Victoria Street to see if they had a book that I needed.

And I didn’t realise just what was on my doorstep.

If you think it’s just books, it most certainly is not. Membership today gives you lots of free perks - such as access to the music service ‘Freegal’ where you can download or stream over 15 million songs without charge from home.

You can also download audio and e-books on a rental basis, including magazines, for free. And you get access to in-depth services on the family history research sites Find My Past and Ancestry free of charge when you use the computers in the library.

That’s besides a music CD and DVD rental service for a small extra charge. I picked up a fairly new DVD that I was going to pay £5.49 for via my Sky subscription to download and rent. Instead, I paid just £1 to rent it for a week from the library. Music CDs cost just 50p for a week’s rental.

“I think a lot of people left the library because of e-readers like Kindles, and they can be handy if you are going on holiday and don’t want to carry books,” said Spalding library manager Sharman Morriss.

“But people are returning back to physical books and are falling back in love with them.”

I met up with Sharman last Friday, while the library hosted its Macmillan Coffee Morning, and there was more of a coffee shop feel inside the building.

Sue Levitt (65) and her friends were chatting and knitting. They run a knitting and crochet group every Friday from 10am until midday which anyone can join. On a table in the library was a jigsaw laid out which people can come along and help complete, and there is even a little shop where visitors can pick up pretty gifts.

Each Thursday from 10.30am until 11am is a ‘rhyme time’ for little ones where new parents can meet - and babies can learn and develop through songs, rhymes and play.

There’s a new lego club from 3.30pm until 5.30pm, also on Thursdays, plus craft and writing workshops and other special events.

And the library has its own ‘PAT’ (Pets As Therapy) dog to help young readers, which is Sue’s own Border Collie called Cai.

“I’d been to Crufts and there was a Pets As Therapy stall and I thought ‘that is a really worthwhile thing,’” said Sue.

“I wanted to see if Cai could be tested to be a PAT dog. I had to complete a lot of paperwork and was coming in to the library photocopying it.

“Sharman told me that the library in Louth has a PAT dog and she said they would like one here and they’d like Cai!”

Once Cai completed his training he began coming into the library to help during story-time for children. Those youngsters who were lacking in confidence found it helped having a canine friend to read aloud to and he now comes in every Tuesday.

“He is really good with the two-and-a-half to four-year-olds,” Sue said.

“One thing that really sticks out in my mind is that there was a little boy who used to come in and was a real live wire.

“He would run around and never listened. I started bringing in Cai and he sat down with his arm around Cai - and for the first time he listened to the stories and it made a huge difference.

“I always used the library. When my children were small I banned TV for a while and showed them the library! I got called into school to find out what we were doing because in one term their reading level had gone up by three years.

“So I am really committed to the library and to come in and find out how libraries have changed is lovely.”

Both Louth and Spalding libraries won an award for introducing their PAT dogs at a ceremony earlier this year hosted by GLL.

It’s free to join the library and being a member means you can access the services from all Lincolnshire libraries, including volunteer-run community hub and mobile libraries.

That includes libraries in Donington, Crowland and Holbeach (which is run from the Co-op in Fleet Street).

Plans are under way to move Spalding library from its current location to facilities within the Red Lion Quarter in Spalding, which includes bringing in a coffee bar.

As the library will be on one floor, it'll be even more accessible to people.

Also in the Spalding library is a microfilm machine with historic issues of the Spalding Guardian, the Lincolnshire Free Press going back to 1849, and issues of the Stamford Mercury.

The local U3A history group meets once a fortnight and there are books in Lithuanian, Russian, Polish and Latvian for residents who have English as a second language.

“We can help people with all of our services,” said Sharman. “If people need help with the computers or using any of the online services we can show them. We have a new IT buddy starting and we hope to run short computer courses in the future.”