Libraries draw praise from Walsall children
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- Category: Walsall Council
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Children in Walsall have praised the borough's library service highlighting it as a place of interest to crediting them with helping them to read better, improve at school and make new friends.
Youngsters across the country were asked a range of questions as part of the Children's Public Library Users Survey to provide an overview of library usage among children and teenagers. Details of the national survey have just been published.
Highlights from the survey among Walsall children attending the borough's libraries,compared to nationally, included:-
* Ninety seven per cent of Walsall children say libraries are places they want to visit compared to 96 per cent nationally.
* A total of 94 per cent of children think libraries are places with lots to interest them compared to 93 per cent nationally.
* According to 64 per cent of Walsall children using the library has helped them read better compared to 60 per cent nationally.
* Forty per cent of Walsall children credit the library with helping them do well at school compared to 39 per cent nationally while 27 per cent say it has helped them make new friends compared to 24 per cent across the rest of the country.
* Overall 41 per cent of children in Walsall surveyed use the library's computers significantly higher than the national average of 32 per cent.
Councillor Anthony Harris, Walsall Council cabinet member for leisure and culture, said: "It is great to see how highly children value our library service. It is important we continue to work with them to ensure we build on their interest and encourage them to keep coming back together with finding ways to attract even more youngsters through our doors.
"Libraries are vitally important to the community and we want to encourage more people to use them.We have recently carried out our own independent survey of library users together with non-users as part of the ongoing library review and as part of that we will be looking at what we offer to all youngsters from parent and baby clubs to reading groups and homework clubs for schoolchildren."
Nationally the survey showed more children are coming to the library for under five's events and holiday activities, reliance on access to computers is particularly strong in deprived areas and libraries in general continue to be well supported by youngsters.
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