Hartley Library
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Opening Hours
From 4 December 2006, opening hours have been extended.  On the days it is open, it no longer closes for lunch.

Facilities
As well as books the library offers the following services:

Internet/PC (2 PCs available for 1 hour use at a time.  Can be booked in advance)
Video/DVD Hire
Local History Materials

History
Hartley Library began life at the old WI hall in Ash Road. By 1930 it was thought to be one of the better stocked libraries with about 180 books. Until the 1960s it was run by local volunteers.

The current building was opened on 26 February 1969 by Commander D.S.E Thompson. Then Hartley was the only library in the district and attracted customers from as far apart as West Kingsdown and Darenth.  Figures for the year 1969/70 showed it had a stock of 10,000 books and dealt with 83,802 issues.  The membership stood at 2,300 (1,622 adults and 678 children).

Since then New Ash Green (1982) and Longfield have been added. Hartley's opening hours were cut on the opening of NAG.

Traditionally Hartley library has been part of North Kent libraries.  From 1974 to 1983 it was part of the Gravesham division, in 1983 the division was partitioned and Hartley, Meopham, Longfield, New Ash Green, Vigo and West Kingsdown became a new North Downs Group. But in 1996 KCC decided to transfer it to Sevenoaks Library, for the only reason that Hartley was in Sevenoaks District Council area - an unfortunate move because Dartford Library has built up over the years an excellent collection of material on Hartley. New Ash Green is deemed to be a more important library with longer opening hours; it is the only nearby library to receive Sevenoaks council agendas and reports, for example.

In 2004, Kent spent £1,974,000 on book stock across the county, but does not keep records for each branch library.

Past Opening Hours
The current opening hours of 28 hours compare well with recent years, but is still well down on those of 30 years ago.

Day	2005	1976
Monday	closed	closed
Tuesday	9-1 and 2-5	10-1 and 2-7
Wednesday	closed	10-1 and 2-5
Thursday	9-1 and 2-5	10-1 and 2-5
Friday	9-1 and 2-5	10-1 and 2-7
Saturday	9.30 - 12.30	9.30 - 1
Total	24½ hours	31½ hours

The opening hours are well down on 30 years ago, but more than 1997, when a cash crisis forced KCC to reduce the opening hours to just 10 per week, including Saturday closure.

Current Usage
Kent County Council have kindly provided the latest usage statistics for our local libraries under the Freedom of Information Act. While issues have clearly declined since 1995/6 (see below), it doesn't take account of things like the popular computer terminals. It is unclear whether the borrowers of 1995/6 and active borrowers of 2004 are the same.

Library	Opening Hours	Issues	Stock Holdings	Active borrowers
Hartley	24.5	14,674	7,246	952
Longfield	26	15,933	6,283	1,166
Meopham	33	58,084	19,322	1,986
New Ash Green	37	31,897	12,393	2,541

Usage in 1995/6

The following are statistics for the year 1995/6 Annual report for the Sevenoaks area libraries, which unfortunately omits the other local libraries. It has to be said that usage of Hartley library compared unfavourably with New Ash Green, even taking account of the latter's longer opening hours. But Hartley compares well against others eg. Otford, Westerham and Riverhead.

The chart below is sorted in order of visitors per hour, which shows that aside from the town libraries, Hartley did quite well for usage comparatively.

	Hours	Issues	Holdings	Borrowers	Visitors	Visitors/hr
Swanley	49	166397	34398	10695	290420	114
Sevenoaks	50.5	329054	70498	24630	241212	92
New Ash Green	33	58265	13079	3759	72088	42
Kemsing	31.5	54311	11107	3072	36764	22
Edenbridge	31	54832	12834	9300	35776	22
Hartley	24.5	30749	8303	2266	20228	16
Otford	24.5	24978	8032	2618	17784	14
West Kingsdown	18	30120	9947	2973	9776	10
Westerham	28.5	20277	10963	3102	14508	10
Riverhead	26	21839	7818	1563	12688	9
Seal	15.5	11672	7014	791	5616	7
St Johns	18	12268	3795	719	5044	5

Further Reading:
Hartley Library - Hart June 1970 (page 11)
Christoph Bull - Gravesend Library 1905-2005 (KCC 2005)