The decline in adult book lending in UK public libraries and its possible causes I. Literature review Douglas J.C. Grindlay and Anne Morris Department of Information Science, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK Keywords Public libraries, Books, Borrowing, Financing, United Kingdom Abstract Possible reasons for the decline in annual adult book issues from UK public libraries are reviewed. Annual book issues have been decreasing since 1980, due mainly to a decrease in issues of adult fiction and, to a lesser extent, adult non-fiction. Possible intrinsic causes include cuts in book funds in real terms and reduced accessibility of libraries through library closures and reduced opening hours. One likely extrinsic cause is increased real households’ disposable income since the late 1970s, which has expanded people’s leisure opportunities and made it easy for them to buy books. The widespread use of home computers and the Internet in recent years is also likely to be a factor, but there is little evidence for a major role of increased television watching. There are some data to suggest that the average person in the UK now spends less time reading books and this, combined with the increase in consumer book purchasing, is probably the underlying cause of the decline in public library book lending. Introduction The 1960s and 1970s were a time of boom and expansion in public library services in the UK, with increased borrowing of books and development of the leisure role of libraries. However, this boom was not to last, and since the early 1980s adult book loans from public libraries have been decreasing steadily. This decline in adult book lending, combined with decreased usage of public libraries in general, has been a major cause for concern for the Government and for library managers (Audit Commission, 2002). According to Leadbeater (2003): ... the existing service is in long-term decline, which, if it went unchecked, would be terminal. There are major implications for the future funding and management of public libraries, and library service managers need to determine what response, if any, they will take to try to counteract this trend. Forrest (2001) described this as a “fundamental strategic management challenge”. Various authors have suggested factors that may have caused the decline in adult book loans, but based mainly on anecdotal evidence. There has been little research into the potential causes, apart from a few user-surveys and a recent statistical analysis of the effect on issues of reductions in opening hours and book funds at a local level (Loynes and Proctor, 2000). There appears to have been no detailed study of national long-term trends. Where loans have been analysed, this has been over ten-year periods at the most and the data have almost never been plotted to show the trends clearly. The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm The decline in adult book lending 609 Received 30 January 2004 Revised 16 June 2004 Accepted 17 June 2004 Journal of Documentation Vol. 60 No. 6, 2004 pp. 609-631 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0022-0418 DOI 10.1108/00220410410568124