3) Culture

All the Culture indicators except one - Youth Participation rates - measure aspects of Library use. No figures are available at ward level for any of these indicators and there are therefore no maps under this priority but data is given in the Culture table. For most of the libraries indicators, Ashfield and Rushcliffe rank highly. The indicator described as Audio Visual Materials includes spoken word, videos and CDs. Comparisons show that county performance is largely similar to regional and national performance on the number of library visits and that issues of audio visual materials are running ahead of average rates within the East Midlands.

The library service currently calculates annual visit figures on the basis of a one week sample, as per CIPFA guidance and there is some concern that this under estimates the total annual footfall; people counting technology is being introduced into libraries in an effort to address this.

This year also marked the beginning of a new continuous monitoring of enquiries, which allows the separation out of the number of ICT and Homework enquiries received. This new process will take time to settle but it is believed that the one-week sample of enquiries which library authorities traditionally use is limited and unrepresentative.

Youth Participation rates show that the highest rates are in Ashfield and Mansfield and that the lowest rates by far are recorded in Gedling.

Contents

Introduction

Section 1

Commentary and overview
Population

Section 2

Tables and maps

Section 3

Definitions of Indicators, sources and contacts, key map and overlays

Schedule of maps

Definitions [PDF 159KB]
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