The moment you enter Ashtead Library you realise that this dictionary definition is something of an understatement. Books indeed but so much more besides: greetings cards, local information, videos, CDs, DVDs, a photocopier and five computers for free access to that other celestial reference library - the Internet.
Behind the desk as Library Manager since 1983 is Jennie Pilfold. Jennie has coped over the years with threats of closure and, like her colleagues in council libraries up and down the country, has had to keep up with the times to meet the requirements of the people of Ashtead. There is no doubt that her story makes interesting reading.
Jennie comes from Newhaven, a small town she remembers fondly from her childhood as having a similar friendly, community spirit to Ashtead. She started work in her local library, graduating from there to Lewes, and moved to Surrey when she married in 1973. She arrived at Ashtead via Dorking library (originally housed in a decontamination shelter on the present site at Pippbrook), Surrey library headquarters and then Leatherhead. Now she heads a team of nine others and is the only fulltime member of staff.
Approximately a quarter of the books loaned are to the under 12s, which disproves the modern concept that children spend all their time in front of a computer or television screen. There is no doubt that Ashtead children at least love reading, encouraged from an early age by the library's popular Tuesday afternoon storytime for the under 5s.
Jennie and her team have become a veritable mine of information: she was recently asked where someone could hire a maid for an evening - and was expected to have an answer. While she needs to know about the books on the shelves - and she looks at every new book when it arrives - these are of lesser importance to Jennie than the people who come through the door often two or three times a week. The library provides many of them with a reason to go out, to communicate. They, and all library users, will be grateful they are no longer greeted with stern looks and overhead signs demanding SILENCE!
