The bar graph illustrates library borrowing of four different types of book in the UK public libraries over a 10-year period between 1995 and 2005.
Overall, it is clear that children’s books were considerably higher than that of other figures in the first year, whereas top audio-visual materials became the highest category by the end of the period. In addition, adult fiction recorded the lowest figure over the entire period.
In 1995, children’s books stood at 1113 million, followed by adult fiction at 98 million. Notably, the former plummeted to 161 million in 2000 before declining to 110 million in 2005. In contrast, the latter decreased gradually to 60 million in 2005 after dropping marginally to merely 93 million in 2000.
Looking at the remaining trends, top audio-visual materials went down gradually to 280 million in 2000 before dipping to a low of 230 million in 2005. Despite this drop, it remained the highest category at the end of the period. In comparison, the figure for adult non-fiction saw a slight growth, from 107 million to 113 million between 1995 and 2000. However, it fell to finish at 104 million in 2005.