Twelve years after the last national study on municipal libraries in France, the Ministry of Culture publishes the results of the last major survey on the audiences and uses of these libraries.
Faced with the increased competition of screens already identified in the last edition of the Cultural practices of French and in a context of increasing the number of places of public reading due to the joint will of the communities and the State, this new investigation was expected.
It highlights a fundamental movement in favour of public reading facilities, with 40% of French people aged 15 and over having visited their library in 2016 (35% in 2005). This survey also shows a profound and long-term change in the relationship between French people and libraries, which nine out of ten French people have attended at least once in their lives.
Public reading facilities have thus become essential and indispensable for the younger generations, who frequent them massively and for whom they constitute an effective relay of artistic and cultural education policies. The use of this equipment is also evolving: formerly focused on borrowing and books, it has become highly diversified, in connection with the wealth of services offered by librarians, on site, online or outside the walls. A place of work and training, of exchanges and meetings, of relaxation and leisure, the public library addresses all and retains a good image and a strong legitimacy with its public as well as non-users.