Mobile service takes reading to the streets

Auckland City’s Community Development and Equity Committee today resolved to continue Auckland City’s mobile library service.

Recent surveys of current use have shown that the mobile library is continuing to meet the needs of its target group.

“Our biggest user group is older adults, with 70 per cent of customers over the age of 70,” says committee chairperson Councillor Cathy Casey. “However, book issues have fallen from 37,000 in 2001/02 to 26,000 in the 2005/06 year.

“While the mobile library service is seen as a valuable part of the social fabric of the communities it visits, the annual number of books issued is steadily falling.

“There is a good argument for the mobile library service continuing, particularly as it visits a number of retirement villages across the city, but we must ensure the service keeps pace with the changing make-up of our communities,” she says.

Of the regular mobile library customers surveyed, 54 per cent use another library as well as the mobile service.

As well as investigating the patterns of library users, the recent research focussed on residents in the Sylvia Park, Oranga and Wesley communities. It identified library service needs in these areas, including whether a mobile library service was required.

The research showed that a large number of people surveyed in these communities considered library services were not relevant to them.

To address this issue Auckland City Libraries are planning targeted communications and marketing library services to raise awareness of the opportunities that libraries can provide.

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