Recession boosts library use (TV + radio coverage)

Strong evidence of a turnaround in the fortunes of libraries is coming in – from the US – as people apparently turn to them for job advice, for books, for cheaper DVD hire etc etc.

Have you spotted any signs of recession-induced upturns in public library usage in the UK? 

Listen to this recent interview on National Public Radio (US) with Library Director Linda Yoder: ‘Librarians Become Unofficial Job Counselors’.

The interviewer begins by talking about how

this recession is proving to be a boon for the nation’s libraries – people are flocking to them… 

And libraries were written off a few years ago as ‘irrelevant’, she adds. 

Here’s the interview’s blurb:

‘The downward economy is putting more stress on libraries. Popular movies and books now have wait-lists, the unemployed are in line for computers to work on resumes and some librarians are even acting as unofficial job counselors. Madeleine Brand talks with Linda Yoder, director of the Nappanee Public Library in Indiana’.

Linda says she’s seen a 56 per cent increase in usage compared to December 2007: ‘In tough economic times libraries become an essential part of people’s lives’, says Linda.

NEWLY ADDED: Just found this NBC TV ‘Hard Times’ segment about libraries: Libraries offer free relief from tough times (along with the blog post appears in: ALA media placements boost coverage of libraries in a tough economy – which highlights some of the 300 stories about the surge in library use, since August 2008. Everything from the Wall Street Journal to the New York Times‘ Freakonomic post about ‘The Public Library Renaissance‘. The American Library Assocation has also produced an ‘Advocating in a Tough Economy toolkit‘.) 

My Blogwatch column in the new issue of Update (see the digital edition here) also include a longer that usual item about the library as ‘a recession sanctuary’ etc:  

In ‘The library - a recession sanctuary’ Boston Globe columnist Derrick Z. Jackson warned that ‘Library systems across the nation face cuts and closures at the very moment they have become recession sanctuaries’.

Boston Public Library’s President Amy Ryan comments that

… the essential role of the library cannot be duplicated in anybody’s home, when you consider the combination of manuals, books, and librarian expertise.

‘In down economic times, families aren’t going out to spend a lot of money on books and movies. This is when the branches can shine as a community gathering place and at a time when people are seeking answers to life improvement.’

In a story on ‘Libraries: Recessionary Leisure Leaders’ the National Spending Journal blog’s Dan Englander also notices that the fall-off in book, CD and DVD sales ‘is being filled by (wait for it) libraries, of all things’.

‘Public libraries around the country are reporting double-digit increases in checkouts and library-card applications.

‘The library seems to be quietly reclaiming its portion of the American leisure market,’ he says.

Worth noting too that refurbishing American libraries (‘so our kids can compete’) is part of President Obama’s stimulus package.

CILIP Enterprises’ John Woolley has also passed round an item in The Bookseller highlighting the ‘dramatic upswing in business’ in Seattle’s libraries: ‘When in the red, libraries are the new black’.

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Matthew Mezey
(News Editor, Library and Information Update)

ADDED: PS Maybe turnaround in the fortunes of libraries is the wrong description - rising demand from users is better, but coupled with budgets under strain, and sometimes closures. Chatting with a friend who works in one London borough, libraries are certainly in the firing line, he said – hundreds of jobs are going across his council.