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Research

Public Libraries and Reading: Young people’s reading habits and attitudes to public libraries, and an exploration of the relationship between public library use and school attainment

Added 04 Apr 2011 | Updated 27 Jul 17

Read about why young people use or do not use their local library and how this relates to their reading behaviour and attitudes more widely.

This report explores the following areas:

  • Young people’s use of their public libraries: numbers of users, and differences according to age or background demographics
  • What factors influence why young people do or do not use their public libraries, again according to age or background demographics
  • The link between public library use and young people’s reading (enjoyment of reading, attitudes towards reading and reading behaviour)
  • The link between public library use and young people’s school attainment, using a subsample of young people for whom we have reading attainment data (N = 4,405)

The results are drawn from an online survey of 17,089 pupils aged eight to 16 from 112 schools, conducted in November and December 2009.

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