Auckland City Council
Media release

3 April 2008

Library use increases

Auckland City Libraries have seen an increase in use during the past three months, going against the trend of visitor numbers falling over summer.

The high visitor numbers are attributed to increases in opening hours, free internet access and improved collections across all libraries.

To date there have been over 2,500,000 walk-in visits and more than 3,400,000 items issued across Auckland City Council’s 17 libraries this financial year (July 2007 to June 2008).

This compares to 2,200,000 walk-in visits and 3,300,000 items issued for the same period last financial year.

Library events are also proving popular, with the Real Gold exhibition of collection treasures attracting a record attendance of over 9500 people to the Central City Library.

Chairperson of the Community Services Committee, Councillor Paul Goldsmith, says these figures demonstrate that libraries are still continuing to enrich Aucklanders’ quality of life through reading, learning and discovering information.

“The environment that Auckland City Libraries is providing its customers is changing rapidly. We are constantly looking for new opportunities to engage and connect with the community, and these results are positive,” says Mr Goldsmith.

Over the next three months, Auckland City Libraries will continue to develop the services it provides, with a number of initiatives currently underway.

These include digitisation of Chinese newspapers, an updated library website, Click and Learn programmes in English, Mandarin and Hindi, and the Overdrive Downloadable Audio service, which provides a range of books in audio format for direct download by customers.

ENDS

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