A visit to the library is worth a theoretical value of up to £27 per user, according to new research published into the economic value of library services.
According to Local Govt news:
The ALMA-UK report finds library users place a value of between £24 and £27 per visit, which is up to 7.5 times greater than the cost of provision. The operation of libraries was also found to support employment and local supply chains.
ALMA-UK chair, Linda Tomos, said: ‘In the current financial climate it is essential that public libraries can demonstrate their significant economic impact. This initial research clearly demonstrates the economic benefits to library users of using our public libraries.’
ALMA-UK has launched a toolkit to enable individual library services to measure their own economic impact. As well as assessing their own value to users, it will also allow libraries to combine results into service-wide, regional, or country-wide impacts.