Taiwanese visited public libraries more than 100 million times last year, an increase of 22.06 million from 2022, the National Central Library said in a report yesterday.
National Central Library Director-General Wang Han-ching (王涵青) at a news conference in Taipei presented the findings of the Annual Report on Reading Atmosphere and Reading Engagement in Taiwan.
In addition to the rise in visits to public libraries, the number of books loaned last year surpassed 100 million, reaching about 127.9 million, an increase of 37.63 percent compared with 2022, the report said.
Photo: CNA
The number of borrowers rose to 35.28 million, an increase of about 5.3 million, or 17.67 percent, it said.
People borrowed more books last year than the previous year, with the average number of books borrowed per person rising to 5.43, up from 1.43.
The average number of visits per person to libraries last year was 4.62, while library card applications rose to 21 million, it said.
E-book borrowing increased to 9.91 million volumes, an increase of 6.21 percent, while e-resource use rose by 136 million items accessed to 841.4 million, it said.
A Chinese-language version of Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear was the most borrowed book, while a Chinese translation of the King of Science Experiments manga series was the most popular among borrowers aged six to 11 for the eighth consecutive year, it said.
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