It is good news that a dozen of Bradford's district libraries are to open for longer hours. The service has become increasingly proactive in recent times, targeting pre-school children through the Government's Bookstart scheme, sending out a special pack to all schoolchildren, organising a range of activities and school visits.

All that has helped to raise "library awareness" among the younger generation, which can only be a good thing. Literacy is so important, particularly in a city like Bradford which continues to struggle educationally.

Yet despite these initiatives, and despite an increase in the number of people visiting their local library (often because of extra facilities such as computers and community sessions), the number of books borrowed has gone down. In Shipley, for instance, issues declined from 271,708 in 1999-2000 to 179,405 in 2004-2005.

A libraries spokesman has put this down to a number of factors such as increased borrowing of books from friends and lower prices in the shops. Yet however low those prices might become, they can't match the free loan of books from a library which allows readers to try new authors or genres without having to make a cash commitment first.

There is every likelihood that more people would be happy to take advantage of this facility if the opening hours were more in tune with their lifestyles. By adding extra opening hours in the evenings and at weekends, the Council will make it easier for readers to browse and borrow outside working hours, and hopefully take their children along with them.