The Ministry of Culture has just published a survey on the uses of municipal libraries in 2016. The last survey of this type was conducted in 2005.
The 2016 survey highlights a profound and long-term change in the relationship the French have with their libraries.
- 40% of French people aged 15 and over have visited a municipal library at least once in the last 12 months (35% in 2005, 25.7% in 1997). This attendance rate does not take into account the under-15s, who represent 40% of the registered public.
- The number of municipal library users has increased by 23% since 2005, an increase of more than 4 million users, while at the same time the French population has only grown by 4%.
- Concurrent with the increase in library use, the enrollment rate has seen a sharp decline from 21% in 2005 to 16% in 2016.
Young people are the most frequent users of libraries
Use of municipal libraries by 15-24 year olds increased by 14% between 2005 (39%) and 2016 (53%). There was also a significant increase for those aged 35-49, with a six-point increase in the share of users between 2005 and 2016. Attendance among other age groups, however, remained stable.According to the ActuaLitté website, the high use of libraries by young people can be explained by "school needs and work, but not only, since school use and use for leisure are practically the same. We can imagine that these two reasons for frequentation intersect: going to the library for school activities does not exclude the borrowing of one or two mangas..."
If people continue to borrow in libraries, they also come more and more to do other things
If the place of books and borrowing remains central in the activity of public reading facilities, it has strongly declined in favor of other practices that are spread over the diversity of the offer proposed by the libraries.The survey distinguishes between digital and non-digital uses in libraries.
"Books unsurprisingly occupy the top two positions of non-digital activities engaged in, both borrowing and reading on site. 55% of users in the last 12 months have borrowed books, 51% have read books on site. Crossing the two activities, 84% of users read books on site or borrowed books (or did both).These results confirm, according to the authors of the study, "a fundamental trend in the redeployment of municipal library activities: while people continue to borrow from libraries, they are also increasingly coming to them to do other things.
43% of library users had an activity using the library's computer or online services
Of municipal library users in the past 12 months, 43% have had at least one activity using computer or online library services.Four activities clearly stand out:
- Consult the online catalog on site (19% of users), a service offered by 60% of libraries in 2015,
- Use a library computer without connecting to the internet (13% of patrons), with about nine out of ten libraries having at least one public computer station in 2015,
- Use a library computer by connecting to the internet (13% of users),
- Use the library's wifi network with their own computer or smartphone (11% of users).
36% of municipal library users visited the municipal library's website in the past 12 months, with 11% visiting only once, 15% two to four times, and 9% five or more times. Among non-users, 7% visited a local library's website (3% visited twice or more). Thus, based on the total population of French people aged 15 and over, 19% have consulted the website of a municipal library in the last 12 months.
71% of libraries (including 97% of libraries in cities with more than 40,000 inhabitants) have a website.
If the use of digital resources offered today by public reading libraries (digital books, online press, self-training, video on demand, online music...) is much less important than the use of more traditional online services, " it is nevertheless significant in a context where these services are only offered by a minority of libraries. The consultation of digital resources motivates between 3% and 9% of the visits made to the sites of these libraries, depending on the type of content offered.
No digital under-equipment among municipal library users: on the contrary
The survey shows that municipal library users are proportionally better equipped than non-users.Référence :
This finding contradicts "the assumption - that libraries will be progressively rendered obsolete by the online services available on the Internet".
"Although the municipal library continues to enjoy a strong legitimacy, including among non-users, the tendency that they are no longer a "sacred" place but a facility whose function can be questioned is growing among the latter, especially in view of digital developments in society," the authors add.
The survey was conducted among 4,000 people aged 15 and over via an online questionnaire. Another 400 were interviewed by telephone.