The importance of libraries

cannot be underestimated.
I visited two libraries yesterday. Both of them are community libraries. 
At the first of the two I had to talk to one of the librarians about a project she wants to run later in the year. I had some relevant material and was dropping it off to her.
As we were talking near the self-serve checkout she suddenly said quietly to me, 
     "Watch this one."
 A small boy arrived with an armload of books. He put them down very carefully  by the checkout scanner, pushing them right underneath. Then he went back to the children's area and picked up a small plastic stool, one of a number the children sit on. He returned to the checkout.
By then an adult was using it and he stood there with a very grim look on his face. The adult was taking his time scanning books and DVDs. He seemed totally unaware that anyone else might actually want to use the machine. All the others were also in use. 
Eventually he moved off. With a large sigh the small boy put the stool in place and then,with some difficulty managed to put each of his books on the shelf. 
He took his library card from a pocket and slowly and carefully scanned it and then each book.  Then he had to reverse the procedure of getting his books off the shelf and onto the floor and the stool back to where it belonged. 
Clutching his pile of books he went down to the adult section of the library and presumably found the adult with him. 
   "He's been doing that since late last year. His father showed him how to do it and now he never makes a mistake. He's only three," the librarian told me, "And okay I know he's highly intelligent but the effort involved in doing it. He loves coming here."
And then a mother turned up with three more children who were so impatient to get to the shelves she had to firmly remind them that first they had to return those they had borrowed. The youngest of those could barely reach to scan their books too. 
I had to leave before I found out whether that child could scan books to borrow them as well as return them. 
In the afternoon I went off to our local library for knitting group. We were in the main area because the Scrabble group needed the tables in the meeting room. That's fine. Other people never seem to mind and often come to look. 
We are cancelling the next meeting at the library but we will be making our presence felt at another event on that day. When I tentatively mentioned it to the librarian I got an enthusiastic response,  "I'll print the fliers off for you."
Oh good. 
Other members of the group were keen to be involved too. 
Late in the afternoon, just as we were about to leave, J.... turned up. J... is a member of the group. She has a "closed brain injury" and she lives in sheltered accommodation. She is untidy. She shouts when she is talking, partly because her hearing is poor and she doesn't realise how loud it sounds. Her "knitting" is an absolute mess and one of us usually gets asked to untangle something. None of that matters.
     "I forgot."
     "It's a bit late J.... We are about to go."
     "I forgot my knitting too."
     "That's all right."
     "Where's M... I never see her."
M... has stopped coming to the group. Trying to explain to J... why this might be the case is not something I want to try and explain. We just agreed we haven't seen her for a while.
      "I hope M... is all right."
And so it went on.
I went and picked up some books before the library closes for two weeks . The closure will allow for the massive amount of work to be done to accommodate the relocation of books during the  renovation and building activities.
On the way out another member of the group asked if I had seen another member who had major surgery before Christmas. One of the library staff was patiently talking to J.... 
There are other members of the group who come and go as they can. They know they will be welcome when they can be there. Some only turn up when they need help. That's fine. It is what we are there for and all some people want. There are others who need the group for other reasons.
Members of the group borrow books while they are there but it is more than that. It's part of the "community" which makes the library a genuine social service. The Scrabble, chess, language, reading groups and more are all part of this. No amount of e-books and internet access can substitute for these things.
I pedalled home wondering about M...   It's a pity she stopped coming. She needed it too.  It's one of the many important reasons for libraries to exist.