Why we should worry about a decline in younger children using the library

Reading time: Less than 1 minute

This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world to find websites, books and articles to help other writers. Today I discuss a Guardian article about a 26% decline in younger children using the library…

When my children were tikes, I used to take them to a “library day” once a week. There, a librarian would read stories and sing songs to a groups of about 40 kids and moms or dads. The event was so popular that we had to line up to register for it every term.

Not infrequently, I got myself in outdoor line — often in the rain — by 8:30 am (the library didn’t even open until 10!) to ensure we had a spot. I wasn’t just being neurotic: There were always plenty of people ahead of me in line.

Sadly, it sounds as though this kind of activity is on the decrease. In the UK, the figures show a distressing downward trend over the last five years.

Look at the stats for children aged five to 10 who had visited the library in the last seven days:

2010: 18.7%

2014: 13.8%

And consider the number who had made a trip to their library at some point over the past 12 months:

2010: 76.4%

2014: 67.7%

I know these statistics come from the UK (read the Guardian article here) but, if anything, I expect they are even worse in North America, where the culture is highly consumer-focused and even more in-love-with-technology.

Children develop lifelong habits when they are young. If they see reading as a normal and desirable activity — because it is fun and because it involves an outing with mom or dad, then they are far more likely to read as adults.

And without readers, what is the point of writing anything apart from a diary or a journal?

 

 

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