Comparison of Public Library User Survey Results

In the Public Library Users’ Survey 2021, the percentage of responses rating aspects of the library service as good and very good increased on every aspect. An area of particular note was the increase of customers rating library opening hours as good or very good, which climbed from 66.6% in 2018, the first survey which took place following the amended opening hours, to 77% in 2021.

Particularly highly rated aspects were the ‘Standard of Customer Care’, increasing from 94.4% in 2018 to 97.2% in 2021, and ‘Overall, what do you think of this library’, increasing from 90.75 in 2018 to 94.6% in 2021. The ‘Attractiveness of the library inside’ and ‘Physical condition of books’ also scored highly: 93.7% and 95.3% respectively. These increasingly positive results reflect the care and consideration that teams have invested in maintaining clean and welcoming spaces with well-kept and updated stock. The PLUS Survey 2021 took place during the pandemic, when libraries were regularly updating layouts to enable safe and effective use of services. Standards of hygiene were extremely high, which staff rigorously worked to maintain. This high rating indicates that customers felt both satisfied with the offer and safe during that time, easily accessing the service that they needed to.