Are Libraries Being Overlooked Nowadays? (Dissertation)

It is a fact that libraries are losing popularity and they’re not being used as much. I did some research from the National Statistics Office of Malta’s website, where I found the real statistics of how much libraries in Malta are being used along the past years.

According to the National Statistics Office – Malta (NSO) in 2013 the number of book loans from public libraries in Malta were lower than the previous year by 9.5 % (Ellul, N., 2014). In 2014, loans were also lower by 17.3% from the previous year (Galea, J., 2016), however during the year of 2015 the number of book loans increased by 22.5% from the previous year (Caruana, E., 2015).  These statistics are accurate ones and one would notice that libraries are not being used as much from time to time. For instance, taking the number of book loans during the year 2015 which is a total of 777,804 compared with 2012 which had a total of 848,167 book loans (Galea, J., 2016) (Caruana, E., 2015) (Ellul, N., 2014). That is a considerable decreasing amount, which can be worrying towards the use of libraries in the future.

Not only in Malta, the use of library is decreasing but also in England, which is a worrying fact that needs to be taken care and action upon, before libraries are forever gone (Flood, A., 2014). Another issue is that very few people are choosing the role as a librarian (Flood, A., 2014). 

One of the reasons that libraries are being overlooked is because of the new technologies, which are somehow taking over. Technology such as eBooks are sometimes being preferred over books as they have some advantages over the use of a book (Abram, S., 2010). EBooks can be very useful to people who are visually impaired as they have the option to let the device read aloud the text for them (Abram, S., 2010). This provides an easy opportunity towards such users, who are usually in the minority. EBooks has multiple other advantages such as, having the option to change the font size or type easily, dictionary function, etc. (Abram, S., 2010). Moreover, it can hold thousands of books in just one device, which allows the user to easily browse their preferred book in just few clicks (Abram, S., 2010). On the other hand, printed books will provide a user experience, by its smell and feel which enhance the user’s memory according to the article ‘P-Books vs. Ebooks: Are There Education Issues?’ by Abram, Stephen. While printed books can be long lasting and can be borrowed, although risks passing germs from one person to the other (Abram, S., 2010).

References:

• Abram, S., 2010. 'P-Books vs. Ebooks: Are There Education Issues?', Multimedia & Internet@Schools, 17, 6, pp. 13-16, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 11 February 2017.
• Caruana, E., 2015. Statistics on Libraries: 2014. NEWS RELEASE. National Statistics Office – Malta. [pdf] Available at: https://nso.gov.mt/en/News_Releases/View_by_Unit/Unit_C1/Living_Conditions_and_Cultu re_Statistics/Documents/2015/News2015_117.pdf [Accessed 11 February 2017]. 
• Ellul, N., 2014. Statistics on Libraries: 2013. NEWS RELEASE. National Statistics Office – Malta. [pdf] Available at: https://nso.gov.mt/en/News_Releases/Archived_News_Releases/Documents/2014/News20 14_118.pdf [Accessed 11 February 2017].
• Flood, A., 2014. Library usage falls significantly as services shrink. The Guardian. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/10/library-usage-fallsdramatically-services-visits-down-40m [Accessed 11 February 2017].
• Galea, J., 2016. Statistics on Libraries: 2015. NEWS RELEASE. National Statistics Office – Malta. [pdf] Available at: https://nso.gov.mt/en/News_Releases/View_by_Unit/Unit_C1/Living_Conditions_and_Cultu re_Statistics/Documents/2016/News2016_140.pdf [Accessed 11 February 2017].