A horrible, heartless and empty-feeling place... your verdict on new-look Holborn Library

Published: 13 May 2010
by CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS

THEY don’t like the chairs, there are fewer books and they prefer librarians to the new self-service machines. 

The public has given its verdict on the Holborn Library makeover, and it doesn’t look good for the Growing Your Library improvement project launched this year. 

Library chiefs cannot have been surprised that users of the Theobald’s Road library – a literary lot by any standards – have put pen to paper almost immediately.

Since the refurbishment was unveiled in March, more than 100 disgruntled users have vented their spleen in the public comments book. 

The new-look library has provoked varying degrees of disgust, from “it’s awful” to the more expletive-strewn.  

Dozens of contributors have likened it to a supermarket, albeit with fewer staff, while others said it resembled an airport waiting room, a Tube station foyer and one even described it as a “patchwork quilt”.

“Very impersonal and very supermarketish, but at least the latter is staffed to a greater extent! V sad!” reads one comment. Another user wrote: “This is now a horrible, heartless and empty-feeling place. I used to enjoy coming here, it felt welcoming, it had a centre, it had humans and it had books. Now it echoes. 

“Your first and main impression is of computers and DVDs and unwelcoming space. Chairs are isolated and the books seem like an afterthought.”

Similar concerns are understood to have been fielded by librarians at Heath Library in Keats Grove, Hampstead. Friends of the library say there had been no positive response to an overhaul there. 

Alan Templeton, who chairs Camden’s library user group, claims the borough’s book stock has been cut by about 40,000 a year.

After visiting the new-look Holborn Library yesterday (Wednesday), he said: “I think there has been a reduction there, so it’s business as usual. I’m utterly against reducing stock. For at least three decades Camden library service has got its priorities wrong and downgraded the importance of books. 

“It drives people away – just like a shop, you need the stock on the shelves.”

Camden has removed roughly 2,000 books from Holborn but plans to replace them.

Nearly all entries logged in the Holborn Library comment book – on public display – preferred humans to machines and feared that librarians had been given a “reduced status” under the new programme. Growing Your Library, which has been criticised by union Unison, has brought job cuts as part of a need to make savings of roughly £2million over four years.

Another comment said the new badges librarians are forced to wear, asking “How can I help you?”, are “patronising” and treat staff and library users as “children”.

A recently introduced automated phone system, which re-routes people away from their local library to a centralised call centre at the Town Hall, has also drawn anger.

Ruth Gorb, a member of the Friends of Heath Library, attacked the new corporate branding at their Grade II-listed building and described new Camden library “stickers” as “lacking dignity”.

She said: “This is a beautiful library with a beautiful room. The Friends have raised a fortune over the past decade to keep it looking lovely and making it a welcoming place. This has seriously changed how the library looks and works. It is terrible. All you see when you come in are these horrible self-service machines and a row of computers. It looks like a cyber-café.”

A press officer from Camden said: “In April 2010, the first full month since the library re-opened, visitor numbers were up 20 per cent on April 2009. We have placed comment books in all refurbished libraries and we value comments left by library users and try to incorporate them. A wide range of chair types are available.

“The self-service machines allow staff time to provide a more customer-focused service that is personalised to the needs of the library user. A combination of self-service and staff is essential to deliver a service that is truly responsive to the needs of the people who use our libraries.”