Day 30: Walsall Mobile Library Service - Libraries make you feel you are never truly alone #30days30libraries
It was the end of my library odyssey two days ago and I was in 'Mobile 2,' a mobile library van, affectionately named 'Tango'. You can see why ...
What the Walsall Mobile Library team accomplish is nothing short of outstanding.This service take what public libraries offer to a whole new level. On wheels. Not only do they visit schools, sheltered accommodation, care homes and day centres but they offer a home library service to people who find it difficult to visit their local library, be it due to illness, a disability or their role as a carer.This is truly a library for everyone.I was invited to go for a drive aboard Mobile 2/Tango by the rather wonderful, unquestionably cool, G.X. Todd whose debut novel, 'Defender' will hit the shelves early next year. When she's not writing brilliant dystopian fiction, Gemma drives one of the mobile library vans and I have to say, she really does it with style.As Gemma steered Mobile 2 onto the road and squeezed its tangerine body in between what looked like a far too narrow space between the pavement and the car next to us, I knew I'd found another library hero.
As we drive along, she points out to me the schools they visit.The day care centres.The spot behind the care home which is always a bit hairy to pull into.
Back at the base, Gemma shows me the stacks and how they are organised. It's book-geek heaven and, as you can see from my face, I was getting rather giddy from it all.
I was fascinated to learn that every authority across the country is responsible for a certain section of adult fiction. For Walsall it's the authors with the surnames beginning MOP to MOR. They're kept in their Fiction Reserve section and are available for Inter Library Loans.I loved hearing about how they still have borrowers who request audio books on cassettes and so they still maintain a good stock of them.
And I adored looking at the old book covers for the Large Print titles that, again, are very much in demand, as well as hearing about how they organise the stock through a little grid on the inside of the book cover and so it is rotated across each mobile van.
But putting my bookish excitement aside for a moment, more than anything, I was completely moved ...By the neat piles of books, labelled and waiting, ready for the home library service to deliver to its house-bound borrowers. (Gemma told me in some cases, the mobile librarians were the people that the home borrowers saw more than anyone else. The librarians get to know what their tastes are and so they can cherry pick titles that they know they will enjoy.)
By hearing about the classes of school children who would scamper onto the bus excitedly, loving every moment of it. I could imagine how much they would adore this space, it was spacious yet cosy. Exciting yet safe. It was on wheels!By the story of a borrower who would visit the mobile library every week, armed with a sports bag, who always requested twenty historical Mills & Boon titles. (It was a challenge amongst the staff to try and source this many books of this type each time.) She had not been seen for a while and then the librarians had been told that she had passed away. And when she had been found, she was sitting in her armchair, one of her library books still in her hand.It was thirtieth library I'd visited in so many days and it had taken me this long to realise: libraries make you feel you are never truly alone. 
Day 29: Richmond Reference Library - Password: libraries #30days30libraries
I don't know why but I have a weird worry that I won't be welcomed in a reference library, that I might feel out of place in one perhaps.On my penultimate day of the month, I learn that this is absolute rubbish.I am sitting in Richmond Reference Library, in a wood-panelled room, next to the window from which I can see the river. When the library assistant asked me, when I walked in, if I was okay, I was worried at first that she might tell me that the library was closing soon. Or, what on earth did I think I was doing here? In a reference library?I told her that I'd just came to look around, that it was my first time here."I'd recommend visiting our Quiet Study Area," she told me straightaway. "It's quite an impressive room, and there's a lovely view of the river."She's not wrong.
So often I have felt, as I have explored new libraries that I'm discovering a secret. A local's tip. A precious, unexplored part of the land.And who has the password?We all do.
Day 28: Kew Library - Where he'd rather be #30days30libraries
Tucked between the shops by the station (and looking a lot like a shop itself) you'll find Kew Library.It's the smallest that I've visited, but also felt like the busiest.
There was barely a patch of carpet left in the children's section (located by the window, at the front.) My nephew plonked himself down in the only remaining plot and we began turning pages. There were so many adults there reading aloud to entranced faces that there was a pleasant hum, layered with voices, all around us.This was also the site where I feel pretty certain my nephew said 'goggles' for the first time.
When we'd finished, we passed the book to the child sitting next to us. It was a popular title, so much so that someone had taken a bite out of it.
As we were leaving, a storytime started up and through the window we saw a boy press his nose against the window, desperate to join in. He had to be lured away by his mother but we were all under no illusions about where he'd rather be.
Day 27: Isleworth Library - Good for other stuff too #30days30libraries
It's day 27 but another library first. In Isleworth, the building the library is in is shared with a leisure centre.
One of the leisure centre staff told me that quite often the swimmers used the library but the gym users didn't tend to because they are too "hardcore."What I loved about today's visit was what was happening in the children's library. A group of girls were sitting around a circular table. There weren't enough of the larger chairs for them all and so one of them sat on a little chair.
They were very busy. I thought that they were another lot of revisers but when I looked at their table I could see that there was something more creative going on."We are making a scrapbook for our friend," they told me. "She's leaving the country and so this is our goodbye present."There were seven of them there, cutting away and sticking; the table was covered with photos of them all together, scrunched-up paper and pens.
I asked them if they had finished their exams and they said they had."We revised in the library because it's quiet. But it's good for other stuff too," they acknowledged.
Day 26: Norfolk & Norwich Millennium Library - This one's for sharing #30days3olibraries
"This one's for sharing," a mum tells her son and daughter.They sit side by side, leafing through the book in front of them. Taking turns to turn the pages.Their dad's gone to the adult library to look for a novel.Their mum's checking books out on the self service machine.Their grandparents sit quietly beside them.There's the hum of play, noise and chatter from the children's library next door. It's sealed from where they are sitting by a curved wooden wall, with large porthole-like windows.
Moving further from them still, the space expands into an echoey cathedral-like space with a glass, vaulted ceiling.
But the children are entranced by the pages.Their family surrounds them, and they read on.
Day 25: Felixstowe Library - I just really enjoyed seeing you here today #30days30libraries
Felixstowe Library was home to the children's portion of the Felixstowe book festival today.
The morning kicked off with the brilliant, Carnegie medal-winning author Tanya Landman.We were all completely captivated by Tanya.The first question from the audience wasn't so much a question, but a statement of utter admiration and joy. The woman sitting next to me simply said to her, "Tanya, you talk so well, you write so well. I just really enjoyed seeing you here today."Afterwards I explored the display of 'These books are made for walking'. This project involved Year 8 students from Felixstowe Academy making 'walk-in books' - boxes that could include things such as pictures of a setting, characters, key words, interesting sentences and props. These were then given to Year 5 students from Cloneis Junior School who then delved into these 'walk-in books' to write their own stories.
Later in the afternoon, I was back for the 'Boy in the Tower' event.I was wowed by this display, complete with blue-glitter studded tin-foil bluchers and a rather stunning blucher throne!
One of the organisers told me, "we work with book groups in schools and so we have children coming to today's event who would not usually come to the festival."Afterwards one of them came up to speak to me."I was so excited to meet you today because I want to be an author too," she told me shyly. "I write things ... but I haven't finished anything yet."I told her that I hadn't finished anything when I was her age either.But if she really wanted to do it, never to give up.And one day I might be coming to see her at the festival.
Day 24: Wood Green Library - Full of light #30days30libraries
We woke up to a different country today.A divided nation.Like so many others, well in fact precisely 48.1% of the country, I was completely shocked to hear that the UK had voted to leave the European Union.Travelling to Wood Green Library this morning, I looked over at my fellow passengers in the tube carriage, I glanced at the faces I passed on the street.Were they thinking of this as well? Could they taste the change in the air too? Were they wondering, as I was, that we were more different to each other than we knew?Arriving into the library on this bright sunny morning, I felt both heartened and saddened when I came across these well-stocked shelves on the ground floor.
Wood Green Library was full of light today.The Haringey family of authors had come out in force.I was joined by multi-talented and very lovely Emer Stamp, the chuffing brilliant Karen McCombie and also the fabulous Fiona Dunbar.We all agreed it was a good thing that we had united today rather than being glued to computer screens, reeling in disbelief, and explored the bright, airy children's library together.
We met with Sean Williams and Etsuko Williams, the wonderful children's librarians in Haringey. Sean encouraged me to pop back to the Hornsey Library if I could as there was an exhibition of some brilliant children's work in the gallery space. It included a papermache model of Darwin's study, complete with creatures in jars, which he described in detail to us."You must see it, it's really amazing. They've taken such care with it."We also spoke to the librarians at the desk who told us a little more about what makes Wood Green special."We're very busy after school," one of the librarians told us. "We have lots of kids who come here and wait for their parents to finish work."I asked them if they got to know the same children."Oh yes, we know them by name. And we know their library card numbers by heart!"Hearing this, being here, being together, made the sadness ease just a little.
Day 23: Bethnal Green Library - Here's where you park your bikes #30days30libraries
Bethnal Green Library is insulated from the busy roads surrounding it thanks to its location on the outskirts of the Bethnal Green gardens.It gives it a little of a stately feel.
Two children riding puffed-up, plastic bikes were ahead of me, with their mother, and were welcomed into the library by one of staff.At first, I thought he was going to ask them to take the bikes outside but in the next moment, he was showing them where the 'parking spaces' were (in front of the information desk) and so they didn't get a ticket.Then he began passing them books out of the children's library.
The two children ran around in wild abandonment. The happiness of the librarian's welcome reflected back in their toothy, gaping smiles.I had to be the annoying person to ask him where I could work on a laptop and what the wifi password was but he broke off from the children to tell me where to go, what the magic word was.But before I'd turned away, he had already started reading to them.
Day 22: East Sheen Library - Welcome #30days30libraries
Despite the sign, I found it a little hard to find East Sheen Library. It's in the same building as a day centre and is situated in a cluster of similar looking buildings that also include a health centre and a clinic.
I was very glad to find it, thanks to the lovely open plan children's library which my nephew enjoyed exploring.Turns out I've trained him rather well ...
We met another of his friends there and after a good hour of crawling, climbing, pulling books off shelves, squeezing through gaps and escaping into the adult library, exploring the sound the book bin made when you hit it, not to mention reading, we'd worn ourselves out.Nephew and friend sat on one of the little stairs nibbling on rice cakes, looking blankly into the distance. Too tired to even hold his cup, my nephew took sips of water opening his mouth not unlike a baby bird."Do you think they are allowed to eat in here?" the mum I was with asked me.I might learn that eating is in fact a prohibited behaviour but after three weeks of visiting libraries, I answered, "That's the thing about libraries. As long as we clean up after ourselves, I'm sure they are welcome to."
Day 21: Whitechapel Idea Store - What librarians create #30days30libraries
Whitechapel did not feel like it had quite woken up this morning.There were walls of honey mangoes that needed to disassembled, a pile of durian fruit that must be unwrapped.
Whitechapel Idea Store looms large on the busy high street. Inside, it reminds me of a quiet cave, only less dripping and darkness, with many more books.There weren't many people there yet.There were children sitting, working, in the children's library with their mother. I wondered if they were being home-schooled. One of the boys was looking for a book about pirates.There were a few people reading in the adult library.But mostly it felt as though I were seeing the space in a quiet moment, while it's taking a breath, pausing between activities.An employability and enterprise week is coming up at the Idea Store with many events such as CV writing workshops and talks on such things as 'Making a Social Media Strategy'.In the absence of people though, I take time to look around and as with so many of the libraries I've visited this month, see, without needing to look, the care and attention lavished upon the space by the librarians.There are reviews that adorn the shelves.
I ask for help finding a book and am swiftly, efficiently assisted.Then, I come across an installation.
As part of the Cityread London initiative ('an annual celebration of literature that aims to bring reading to life for the whole capital') Whitechapel Ideastore has created a rather neat installation around Gillian Slovo's 'Ten Days'.I asked one of the librarians more about it and they passed me their colleague's email address who was the one who created it.It made me wonder, not for the first time, what librarians create to make our libraries what they are.
Day 20: Ham Library - Libraries aren't like this in my country #30days30libraries
I spent most of my time in Ham Library making sure my nephew didn't poke a baby in its face in his excitement to say hello.It was fairly quiet in Ham Library today but the children's library was full. There were a few there like me - a child plus one.My nephew enjoyed driving the book bus a little too much (he couldn't stop frowning whenever anyone else had a go.)
I met an Italian nanny with 8-month-old Jackson."Libraries aren't like this in my country," she told me. "We don't have things for children to do. Not that's free. We come here every Monday for a class or we just visit today, to meet other children."My nephew again narrowly missed Jackson's eye waving hello to him while I gabbled away to the other nannies and mums.I'm not sure who was more pleased to see each other; the children or the grown-ups.
Day 19: Camberwell Library - Libraries are everything #30days30libraries
There's a queue outside Camberwell library as midday strikes.Being a Sunday, there are shorter opening hours today and now a crowd has converged around its glass doors.
Once in, we all quickly disperse to different areas.A Rastafarian heads straight for a computer, a brother and sister start scanning the stubby-sized bookshelves, a young woman darts upstairs to find a desk space, whilst I begin the annoying process of finding a plug socket.
A smiling librarian helps me.Another processes my application form to join the library. She tells me that 'crispy books' are what makes this library special."We have lovely new books here, crispy books," she says. "If you want a quieter vibe, head to the Newington. Or the John Harvard has a local studies area. Librarians there can you help you if you want to research something."Camberwell library is newly built, having been open only since November. I used to visit the old space on Peckham Road with my Year 1 class when the children's library was in the basement.We'd navigate the pavements in a wavering line, teacher, teaching assistant and parent helper steering the children away from the busy roadside, and have a play on the green afterwards. Now the library is based on Camberwell green and I imagine, just for a moment, being a teacher again, but here, now. The kids spilling out onto the play area in the green, after a good ferret through the book boxes.I'm joined in Camberwell Library by G. R. Gemin, author of the fantastic 'Cowgirl', as well as equally brilliant and newly released 'Sweet Pizza'. G.R. Gemin is a huge supporter of libraries.He encourages other authors to host their events in libraries and has led by example, visiting a huge number of libraries in Wales over the last year.He explained, that in some of the more rural areas he visited, "Libraries are everything. They are books, they are where you go to get benefits advice, they are community centres - a one stop shop."He also told me about the 'Every child a library member' scheme in Wales, which I had not heard of."I would talk with the children and then they would be given a library card, a little bag and straightaway they could go borrow books."From where we sit, we can hear the sounds of the children using the children's library. There's a shake of a bell to signify a 'Storytime' starting and once again I'm transported to being a teacher again, watching my class fall upon the library bookshelves like hungry animals, tumbling headfirst into other worlds.
Day 18: Idea Store Bow - A learning centre #30days30libraries
A few steps from the Roman Road market, you'll find the Idea Store Bow.As soon as you enter, you find a cafe and signs for different zones, including the so-called 'learning labs' which are an integral part of these spaces.
"What makes an idea store, an idea store," one of the librarians told me, "is that we are a learning centre. As well as the usual library services, we run a range of adult learning courses, as well as lots of different activities."She handed me a brochure.
There's not only English and Maths, but courses in business and cookery, fashion and textiles or foreign languages and interpreting. The courses are very competitively priced and are also offered at a concessionary price if you receive a job seekers or an employment support allowance, income support or an incapacity benefit, a pension credit or if you earn less than 21,ooo a year.If you fall in this concessionary bracket, you could get qualified in British Sign Language to Level 1, which is a course of 32 weeks, for a mere ten pounds.Or a ten weeks of 'Strictly Ballroom' classes for twenty pounds.A bicycle maintenance course for ten pounds.Upholstery for twenty-five.Digital Film-making.Guitar playing.Beginners Russian.Nail Art.Mindfulness.French Patisserie. All these skills, and more, are being learnt within these walls.
Day 17: Oadby Library - Free to join #30days30libraries
Oadby Library is stationed on a busy high street, opposite a NatWest, next to a wedding hire company.Before I even get in there, I'm once again struck by just how many services libraries offer. It's not just about books, although they will always form a library's backbone.
I stop. I listen. I look.A woman sits in a quiet corner and calls social services to ask if they can help with care for her elderly mother.A young student comes in to enquire if she can volunteer as a reading buddy for the Summer Reading programme.A librarian helps someone to save a file onto a memory stick and shows them how to forward and delete emails.Everywhere I look I see signs of learning, of support.
A mother and daughter sit, leaning against one another on a sofa, sharing a book.A student sits, writing furiously, plugged into her iPhone and her work.A little boy walks through the room, counting his steps."1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4."No one dares shush him.
Day 16: Westminster Reference Library - We get all types of people here #30days30libraries
Tucked behind the National Gallery, squeezed next to a building site, the Westminster Reference Library sits.It's very central; I had to walk past two floating Yodas to get here.
From the long wooden table that I sat at, I could hear the roar of the trucks and construction from the building site next door and yet still the room adopted that quiet tick of productivity that I have come to know so well.A man is working on a spreadsheet at the computer across from me, another is leafing through a newspaper, a bottle of water beside him. There are many other people tucked out of view, behind bookshelves, beyond the wooden bannisters.
You won't find your James Pattersons in this library. It's mostly reference books but has three lending sections in business, fine arts and performing arts.They have computers that have specific business programmes on them to help people who are starting their own businesses.They have sets of plays that a group could borrow for a performance.It's a very specific library with a distinct purpose and yet the librarian who I spoke to told me, "We get all types of people here.Some who just know that we have free wifi.Others who come here to work. There is a quiet - well, as quiet as it can be with a building site next door- workroom upstairs.Or we get people who are setting up their own businesses and working on their business plans. They come to use the reference books and the computer programmes.We're so close to the National Gallery, the Portrait Gallery, the Royal Academy, that it's a good base for people working in the arts to use too.All sorts."She showed me the list of online resources that you can access if you are a member which I had no idea you could get.
I told her that I had to go but that I would definitely come back."Please do! Come back anytime," she said.
Day 15: Chipping Barnet Library - Without libraries what have we? #30days30libraries
Chipping Barnet Library was closed today.I almost walked into the doors, still hoping that they would sweep open but they do not move.They remained stubbornly closed.The librarians of Barnet are taking industrial action this week (on Monday at Mill Hill Library, on Tuesday at North Finchley and today at Chipping Barnet) against the proposed cuts to their service. This youtube they've made explains why. 
I met Stephanie who thought the library was open today, at the entrance.I asked her if she came to this library often."All the time. Avidly. Voraciously," she replied. "I'm a great reader. I come here about two or three times a week."We sat together on the bench outside the entrance to 'sun our brain cells,' as Stephanie put it."This is a purpose-built building," Stephanie told me. "There's space for reading, computers ..." She gestured to the space beyond the doors.
"I can't understand why reading is seen as elitism these days. Surely it should be something we are encouraging everyone to do. Don't they want to do that anymore?And another thing, I like to read and enjoy a book but I don't necessarily want to keep it forever. Even if I lived in Buckingham Palace, I wouldn't have enough room for all the books that I have read. In a library, someone else can enjoy it too."
"I'm very much in favour of this strike. I went on a strike a few years ago and we marched up Barnet Hill. That was how much we meant it," Stephanie told me, with a smile.While we sat there, a man came with a bagful of books to return and a boy, still in school uniform, tried the doors."I came to use the computers. I'm in Year 10 and I'm doing my mocks next week," he told me.He stopped for a moment after we spoke, unsure of which way to go, before he walked away.
Day 14: Shepherd's Bush Library - He couldn't stop smiling #30days30libraries
In Shepherd's Bush Library today, I was handed a book.It was a Thai phrase book and dictionary.Its owner was a young child, perhaps not quite three.
I had just had a new library card issued (a process of less than three minutes) and was now sitting in the slightly spaceship-like work zone, on one of the computers that sat in a row.The child toddled towards me and handed me the phrasebook and when I feigned delight, promptly went back to the shelves to bring me another.He seemed giddy that there was an endless supply, sitting, waiting, to be passed over.I believe we might still be there now, giving and receiving books, if his mother had not physically stopped him in the end."Thank you," I told him, each time.He didn't speak back.But he couldn't stop smiling.
Day 13: Oxford Central Library - My happy place #30days30libraries
Today took me to a temporary library.Oxford Central Library is having a facelift, due to the shopping complex it is part of being refurbished, and so a little of their stock has been moved to a single room about a five minute walk away from the original site.Sally Nicholls, the brilliant author of many brilliant books, her most recent being 'An Island of Our Own,' invited me to see the space.First, we went to look at where the library used to be.
You could still just about make out the lettering of the library sign on its outside.
And then we followed the signs to the temporary space.I got in the way of bemused Oxfordians who could not understand what I was taking pictures of.
Everything has had to be distilled to fit into this new, temporary space. One of the librarians told me that they take a lot of reservations for books that they access them from their stores. Every day boxes and boxes of book are brought to this site that have been reserved by users.Another librarian told us that a lot of books were still kept on the original site, wrapped up in cling film to protect them. It was hard to shift that image from my mind; cling-filmed books, cocooned and waiting.It's business as usual here, just the condensed version."When I first came here, I wanted to sit with Peter my nine-month-old baby and read to him," Sally told me. "But it was so tiny, there was just no space for us.I didn't realise at first that this was just temporary.I felt rather bereft when I thought that the old library might not reopen and this was it.The old library is such a big, spacious building. It was very much my happy place."I told Sally about how often in the last thirteen days I had felt physical relief on entering a library. For me, the sensation of arriving at a sanctuary has increased over this month, as I have visited more libraries, not lessened.We talked about the pressures upon councils to keep libraries open. How another valuable service would be cut somewhere in their place.We didn't have the answers but I told Sally how I had seen some libraries streamlining with other services and we wondered if this was where the future might lie.In the meantime, we busied ourselves finding Peter some board books from the miniaturised children's library in the small room that is at the moment, Oxford Central Library. 
Day 12: Charing Cross Library - It's never too late to learn #30days30libraries
Their website told me that Charing Cross Library is 'a busy library serving residents, commuters and the local Chinese community' but I wasn't expecting to find it quite so buzzing on a rainy Sunday afternoon.Nor was I prepared for how well the library catered for the Chinese community.I saw it in the signs ...
the books, of course ...
as well as through the decorations.
One man I tried to talk to gestured to me sadly that he did not speak English and then went back to reading his chinese newspaper.
I spoke to Greg who told me that has been using this library for 24 years. Today he was here with his two daughters, who were half-chinese and half-french."I always come here. I've moved around London but I come back to this library when I go to Chinatown, for eating or shopping. This library has the best stock of chinese books in London.It's a centre for us. We can go to Chinatown and come here in just one visit.My daughters are half-chinese and they like eating chinese food. I tempt them to come here by promising them a tasty lunch afterwards."
I explained to Greg that I was also half-chinese but that, when he asked, I could not speak or read chinese myself."Well, it's never too late to learn," said Greg and pointed me towards the library shelves where I could find a book to get me started.
Day 11: Richmond Library - I like that it's isolated #30days30libraries
Having raced across London, ducking past festival-going crowds, Saturday shoppers and lots of people laid down with plastic bags of picnics, my journey to Richmond Library had been a little fraught.I rushed through the open doors of the library, feeling waves of relief that I'd made it there before it'd closed.
I was in.I knew what I had to do.I had to get started and begin talking to people. I needed to listen.I wanted to take some photos, and get a feel for the place.I'd left my husband waiting outside for me, sitting on a patch of grass, and had promised him that I wouldn't be 'too long.'But I just couldn't do it.As though in a trance, I took a book from the shelf - Malorie Blackman's 'Boys Don't Cry' - I can't believe that I haven't read it before now - and sank down into one of the sofas.I began to read.The library had cast a spell over me.
I could almost hear its voice ...You will take a book.You will find a seat.You will read. There was a young man sitting opposite me - also sunk, into book, and sofa. Lost in another world.His name was Aaron."I *should* be coming here to work," he said with a wry smile. "I'm on an Access course at Richmond College doing Literature, Law and History and I come here often to work. But also to take breaks too."He smiled again and proffered his book.A Terry Pratchett title.
"I love Terry Pratchett. I read him all the time.I didn't used to come here but now I can't stop.It's quiet.And I like that it's isolated from everything else."Like me, Aaron hadn't been able to stop himself from entering into the world of a book, shuttering down the noise of the outside.And like me, he was in exactly the right place to do it.