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January 16, 2007
The public speaks
Thanks to David Bloy who gave me this link to this morning's Daily Mail piece and the comments that have been made
There is a very sharp contrast between what the public perceive to be happening to their libraries and what the Government keeps saying they would like to see.
Posted by Perkins at January 16, 2007 6:17 PM
Comments
The Daily Mail is the only paper to report figures for the drop in the number of books lent:
"Stock has fallen by 40 per cent since the mid-1980s. Last year's drop was 2.6 per cent, and numbers of books actually borrowed dropped by 2.2 per cent, to 323 million."
Every other newspaper just reproduces the press release from CIPFA and/or the MLA. Every paper reports the increase in visitors but none of them note that the number of vistors is still well below levels achieved in 1994-5.
It also occurs to me that the number of visitors may have increased as people have to go back to the library a second time as the book that they want isn't on the shelf the first time?
Posted by: Martyn at January 17, 2007 1:34 PM