Visitor figures soaring at Rugby Library
A manual count at Rugby Library has shown an increase of 9.4% in the last three months.
Over the course of a week during February, 6269 people used the library, up from 5,836 in a week in November.
Visitor figures were up across the board, up 22.6% for 0-5 year olds, 24% for the number of 6-16 year olds and 7% for adult users.
The figure is also increasing considerably on a similar week in 2008 with the figure growing 21.4% overall with visitors in the 0-5 year age group up 44%, 6-16 year olds increased by 41.9% with the number of adults visiting up 17.4%.
Cllr Colin Hayfield, portfolio holder for Customers, Workforce and Partnerships, said: “I am delighted to see the upward trend in visits at Rugby Library. Staff have worked extremely hard to forge partnerships to create a programme of events such as the music concerts where we have used only limited resources to encourage a new audience to enjoy what the library can offer.
“There is clearly a growing base of customers at Rugby Library and, although it may have to reduce its opening hours to help the library service meet the savings it needs to make, it provides a clear example of the rationale behind the library proposals.
“That is to protect, as best as our financial situation allows us to, those libraries that receive the vast majority of the visits made and offer a robust and varied service where there is a strong demand rather than spread resources to where demand is low.”