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Abstract Data from Westminster Libraries on membership, borrowing frequency and stock use is compared with significant studies of public library use from the last 50 years. The article examines the extent of public library use, and the social and demographic factors influencing use. Analysis of book and audio-visual stock use indicates the concentration of demand on a few titles and subjects, and the relationship to what is in demand commercially. Aspects of public library use have remained constant over at least the last
50 years, and across geographical boundaries. Public libraries are used principally for leisure, for borrowing recent fiction, for useful non fiction related to immediate life interests, and for pop music. Quantitative data from library systems provides a different, probably more accurate, picture of the nature and extent of public library use.
Introduction
This article considers the nature and extent of public library use. It compares previous studies of public library use with data available from library records. Most earlier studies of public library use involved surveys, which can determine what kind of people use libraries, but interviewees habitually overstate their own library use. Comparing surveys with quantitative and computer generated library data permits a clearer view of the most valuable features of each. The results suggest that only a minority of people use libraries, that few of these do so regularly, and that the nature of library use has changed little over the last 50 to 100 years.
This study uses data from Westminster Libraries' computer records:
* membership records;
* library circulation data covering adult books, music and videos;
* data on frequency of use of members' tickets;
* a detailed sample of customer requests. Westminster also collected personal information - age, gender, ethnic background - from those joining any of its libraries.
The study of a cultural activity such as public library use can never be an exact science, but the methodology assumes that similar results from a variety of studies and library data will lead to meaningful conclusions.
Studies of public library use
The American Public Library Inquiry of the late 1940s reviewed all user studies from 1930 to 1949, carried out new survey work and analysed existing library records. It concluded that Americans did not use the...