Library patrons in the United Kingdom checked out 21% fewer books last year than they had a decade ago, continuing a trend that has seen circulation in the UK decline steadily since 1980.
The sharpest drop in the 1990s, 25%, occurred in Scotland, the Manchester Guardian reported December 9. In Wales, circulation fell 19%; in Northern Ireland it was off 15.9%, and in England 21%. The figures were compiled by the library and information statistics unit at Loughborough University in Leicestershire for Annual Library Statistics 2000.
The public borrowed 388 million books in the UK in 1999, compared to 492 million in 1989, the Loughborough report said. The largest decline occurred in adult fiction—down 31%. Nonfiction was off 14%, but borrowing by children increased slightly during the decade. Borrowing had dropped about 12% in the 1980s; if the long-term trend continues, the public will soon be borrowing fewer than half the 660 million library books it took out in 1981.
The report blames the recent decline partly on staff and hours reductions in the 1990s. The public’s spending on books fell steadily until last year, when it rose slightly.
Posted December 18, 2000.