News
Latest figures reveal an increase in children’s library lending
12 May 2010
The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) have revealed that despite a continuing decline in adult lending, the number of children’s books borrowed from libraries has increased. CIPFA’s annual library survey reveals the figures for library lending between 2008 and 2009, coinciding with the 2008 National Year of Reading and the beginning of the recession.
Children’s fiction showed a 6.1% rise in lending, with 80.1m books issued by libraries. Children’s non fiction also saw a smaller increase in lending of 0.7% with 5.3m issues. In contrast adult lending decreased over the year, with fiction seeing a lending fall of 0.1%.
Total library visits have declined by 1.1% to 324.99m. Library spending on books has fallen, with total book stock seeing a fall of 1.6% to 99.75m.
However the report shows that libraries saw an overall rise in book issues of 1.3% to 312m, the first increase in 20 years.
Read the full article in The Bookseller.
