Library book borrowing drops 56pc in 10 years

People borrowed 23.5 million books from public libraries in 2022, a significant drop of 56 percent compared to 2012.

Despite five more public libraries being set up in the SAR between 2012 and 2022 to make a total of 82, the number of books borrowed from these facilities decreased, according to data by the Census and Statistics Department.

In 2012 people borrowed 53.3 million books while in 2019 the number dropped to 43.5 million.

Collection of books and multimedia materials was 15.1 million in 2022, 17 percent more than in 2012, which was 12.9 million.

For registered readers, the number increased from 4.08 million in 2012 to 4.82 million in 2022.

Although resources and the number of registered readers have increased, the number of books borrowed at libraries has in fact declined year by year.

The drop has been most significant since 2020, when the number of books borrowed was 23.1 million - far lower than the number in 2019, when it was 43.5 million.

But this could be due to libraries being closed for about five months in 2020 because of the pandemic.

While the number of books borrowed in 2021 increased to 28.2 million, it has been followed by a dip the following year, to 23.5 million.

The number of multimedia material loans dropped from 2.39 million items in 2012 to 519,000 items in 2022, a drop of 78 percent.

According to classifications, 76.2 percent of borrowed books in 2022 were Chinese. Among them, children's picture books were the most popular choice, accounting for 19.4 percent.

Novels belonging to "linguistics and literature" also accounted for 15.2 percent.

For English books, children's picture books were also the most popular, making up 28 percent of total English books borrowed. They were followed by children's novels at 17.4 percent and linguistics at 15 percent.

During the same period the number of online renewals and reservations also saw a significant drop.

The number of online renewals has dropped from 16.3 million in 2012 to 9.01 million in 2022, a decrease of 45 percent.

The number of reservations decreased from 923,000 in 2012 to 442,000 in 2022, a dip of 52 percent.

According to the Census and Statistics Department, there are several reasons leading to the decrease in the number of books borrowed. They include improvement in the reading environment in some libraries that more people tend to read or use library materials inside libraries and a drop in demand by schools for group borrowing service.

The pandemic also affected the library usage during 2020 to 2022.