Public Libraries – Key Facts
- Libraries regularly have 40 million visits a year, more visits than cinema and football combined and are the most popular service Councils provide.
- Independent research commissioned by Suffolk Libraries shows that libraries generate £41 million worth of social value, translating to £6 for every £1 invested, as well as saving NHS services a substantial £542,000 annually.
- In the Scottish Library and Information Council’s 2023 Public Library Survey, From over 15,000 responses from all across Scotland, over 93 per cent agreed that using the library improves their quality of life.
- Scotland’s libraries remained the most frequently visited cultural places in 2022, and also enjoy the highest customer satisfaction rate of any local authority cultural service, at 89 per cent.
- Post-pandemic libraries are seeing significant return in visits with a 68% rise in visits year on year.
- Libraries offer Bookbug sessions, an array of studies have concluded that children benefited from hearing nursery rhymes from an early age. Preschool children (with and without additional support needs) who were familiar with stories, songs, and rhymes developed better literacy, cognitive, and motor skills.
- Libraries reduce social isolation and support mental health and wellbeing, as evidenced by the Scottish Government.
- Libraries play a key role in supporting the current digital strategies in Scotland by providing free access for people unable to get online at home, delivering substantial democratic, social and economic benefits to citizens and communities, as well as helping people to search and apply for jobs and welfare.
- Libraries have also been essential warm spaces during the cost of living crisis.
- There is a National Strategy for Public Libraries being implemented in Scotland that highlights their value to places, people, and partnerships, and all of these will suffer if libraries are removed from communities.
- There is a verified link between reading and escaping poverty. A study undertaken for the Department of Work and Pensions demonstrates that being read to at age five is an ‘important protective factor against poverty at age 30.
- Egmont UK reported in February 2020 that ‘children who read for pleasure simply do better in life. They have a better sense of well-being. They reach greater levels of attainment, in all subjects. By feeding knowledge, imagination and by engaging empathy, reading feeds children’s growing humanity. Nothing less than children’s life chances are at stake.’
- In Scotland, over 1 in 4 adults might face challenges due to their low literacy skills. It’s estimated that ‘the average worker in the UK with very low literacy will earn approximately 7.1% less than if they had a basic level of literacy.
- The digital skills gap costs the UK up to £63 billion a year and libraries play a key role in reducing it.
- It is a legal duty as a Council to provide services that meet the needs of their community, so any closures should only be undertaken with the support of residents. If changes mean that someone cannot access services in the same way then this could also infringe Equalities Law.