Band 9: The charts below give information about the number of people who use public libraries and the main reasons to visit in Britain in 1991 and in 2000. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

The pie charts provide information about the primary reasons why people visited public libraries in the UK in 1991 and 2000.

Overall, libraries received the same number of visitors in both years, with borrowing and returning books being the most common purpose. Additionally, a significant shift was observed in the way users utilized these facilities, as borrowing and returning video, which was not listed in 1991, emerged as a new reason at the end of the period.

In 1991, nearly two-thirds of visits to British public libraries were to borrow or return books, which was considerably higher than the second most popular purpose, reading newspapers or magazines, at only 15% of visits. Both of these categories witnessed a 10% drop by 2000, standing at 55% and 5%, respectively. A similar downward trend was recorded in studying, as it accounted for 10% of all visits in 1991, then declined significantly to 2% in the last year.

However, there was a notable rise in the popularity of obtaining information, with its figures doubling from 10% to 20% between 1991 and 2000. While no users borrowed and returned videos from libraries in 1991, nearly one-fifth did that in 2000, making it the third most prevalent reason. Finally, public libraries in the UK served the same number of 290 million visits in both years.