If you’re looking to cut your spending it’s time to check out what could be The Blackmore Vale’s best-kept money-saving secret: libraries

Depending on your reading and listening habits and hobbies, it’s estimated you could save more than £600 a year simply by reading free books, accessing magazine subscriptions, newspapers, and basic genealogy research. You can also save on free events, children’s entertainment, and some libraries can even be used as an informal workspace.

Dorset and Somerset Libraries are free to join. All you need to join is a proof of address, although if you have no fixed address you can be helped to join without. Find out more online at somerset.gov.uk/libraries-leisure-and-communities/libraries and dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/w/join-the-library, or in your local branch.

Become a member

Once you’re in, you can use your membership card at 31 libraries in the Dorset Council area (34 if you’re in Somerset), and also at some of the LibrariesWest locations, including Poole, Bath and Northeast Somerset, Bristol and South Gloucestershire.

Here’s where the savings start…

• Use the Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and Oxford Music Online.

• Access Ancestry’s Library Edition, where you can look at the census from 1841-1901 as well as many parish records.

• Comics fan? You can access more than 2,800 titles across a range of genres, including Marvel. Check out as many titles as you want for 21 days each.

• You can borrow e-books and audiobooks on the BorrowBox website, which has 12,0000 e-books and 2,500 audio titles.

• Save on your favourite magazines, by borrowing them through your library. You’ll be able to access 12 months of back issues too.

• One of the biggest savings could come from accessing daily and weekly newspapers, with more than 1,000 for you to choose from. You can even use the app to have the paper read out loud to you.

• And then, of course, there are the books! Not just the ones on the shelves, which you can borrow that day but the ones that have just come out, or are about to come out. Instead of lashing out the best part of £20 on the latest detective thriller, pay £1 and reserve it online, saving a potential £19.

Get inspired

Across Dorset, many libraries are also established as cultural hubs, with fascinating free events, both online and in-person.

On 20 August you can visit Dorchester Library for free between 11am-12noon to hear American crime fiction author Rachel Amphlett talk about her latest novel A Silent Truth. It’s the fourth in her Detective Mark Turpin series, and you can question all things murder, mayhem and where the bodies might be hidden.

Dorset Council’s Culture, Communities and Customer Services Portfolio Holder, Laura Beddow, said: “When money is really tight it can be hard to look after yourself, so do remember that our libraries are brimming with free activities for all ages, as well as the free books you’d expect.”

She also urged people to look up the council’s Cost of Living Help web pages at www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/cost-of-living-help for practical advice about managing money worries.

“I know it’s not going to pay the electricity bill but doing the things we like, especially when they’re free, does help put us in a better frame of mind to tackle our problems,” she said.

by Faith Eckersall