I have always been a fan of libraries from my first experience of the mobile library which stopped at the end of my road in a little village in Kent to the smell of old books in a university library. I experienced libraries in a very different way when my son was little and we hung out in the fabulous children’s sections in Copenhagen libraries. But to me they are certainly more than books. Earlier in the summer there was a very controversial op-ed about libraries (now deleted) which rightfully got the library community raging.Over the last year whilst my son’s school has been located in a building an hour’s journey from my home I have started to use the library even more as a place to work on my laptop using the free wifi and the quiet but cosy environment. I get almost all my books I read from the library and apart from some very new releases, I have been able to find all of them , in English, in the central library catalogue.

It got me thinking about how much in the average month using the library saves me so I thought I’d share it here and may, if you are not a regular library user this may make you use them more.

I used to have a membership for a co working space and then changed it to a pay as you go use. It would be around 150dkk each time to use the space and wifi for the morning to early afternoon. I used the library for this now so I save 1800dkk per month. I can also use the printer at an affordable rate if I wish to.

I love to read and I used to spend a fortune on novels for my Kindle. As I have started getting these books from the library I am saving around 600dkk per month by borrowing instead of buying. It also means I can try books out without the pressure of having to like them as I spent money.

I bought a basic loom from Tiger ages ago and decided to give it a go over the holidays. I needed a bit of inspiration so looked the recommended books on Amazon and then got them from the library. Immediately I looked through them I decided this hobby wasn’t for me. So saved myself another 600dkk on books I don’t need.

My son saw a book in the bookshop of a museum he wanted to look at about Danish architecture. 400dkk was an eye watering amount for a book he would probably only read once but it was sitting there on the shelf of the main library so we booked it out. He had a happy couple of hours looking at it and he know where it is if he ever wants to borrow it again.

I love magazines especially interiors ones but at around 40dkk each it can amount up but I can spend my lunch time in the library reading the latest issues (you can’t borrow them in the issue month) so another 240dkk saved.

I had a meeting with a client and instead of booking a meeting room somewhere or spending a lot of money on coffees etc in a coffee shop whilst not overstaying our welcome I had it in a central library thus saving at least 150dkk.

So a sum total of 3,760dkk was saved. Now in many cases I was able to access things that I would make a choice about spending money on. I can’t afford to buy all those books every month so I would probably only by one and thus read less. Same with the magazines, I would make a choice of which one or two to buy. The book for my son would have been a no and he would have missed out.

Apart from the work aspect of using the library I think all the other ways I use the library and save money would be relevant to most people. Add in that there is access to the library after hours too you don’t need to be confined to using it at time difficult for you.

The final thing I love about the library I use in Folehaven is the wonderfully friendly staff who work there and the little community of other regular users like myself.

Want to see more about how the library system works here? I have two videos (Part one and part two) to give you a great introduction.