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 by far the most common purpose. However, a shift was observed in the way users utilized these facilities, as borrowing or returning videos, which was not listed as a reason in 1991, along with seeking information, emerged as significant reasons by the end of the period shown.
In 1991, nearly two-thirds of visits to British public libraries were to borrow or return books, which was considerably higher than the next most popular, 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, but declined significantly to a mere 2% in 2000.
On the other hand, there was a corresponding rise in the popularity of obtaining information, with its share doubling from 10% to 20% in the latter year. Meanwhile, while no users borrowed videos from libraries in 1991, nearly one-fifth did so in 2000, making it the third most prevalent reason. Finally, in both years public libraries in the UK served the same number of 290 million visits.