The Department of Culture, Media and Sport has measured the public’s usage of libraries in England since 2005. In the 12 months to March 2016, it reported that just 33.4% of adults had used a public library, compared with 48.2% of adults in 2005/2006, when the survey began. Adults in the least deprived areas of England saw their library usage decline the most over the decade, from 46.3% to 31.4%, while according to the report, library usage in the five most deprived areas of the country “remained reasonably stable”. He added: “It is irresponsible of the Library Taskforce not to have properly researched the reasons for such a ‘significant’ decline in library usage and not to have put in place an effective plan to attract back adult users. The crisis facing public libraries should be at the very top of their agenda.

Source: The Guardian August 16, 2016 15:50 UTC