Ten Key Facts about Public Libraries in London

1. There are 395 public libraries in London. If libraries in places like hospitals and sheltered accommodation are included, London has a total of 2,238 libraries.
2. Public libraries are open for 15,000 hours every week, or 780,000 hours every year.
3. Public libraries stock 16,000,000 books, as well as 2,700,000 CDs, cassettes and talking books, videos and CD-ROMs.
4. Public libraries loan 42,000,000 books every year. Over 7,500,000 CDs, cassettes and videos are loaned every year.
5. There are over 50,500,000 visits to public libraries every year.
6. Library staff answer almost 10,000,000 enquiries every year.
7. Every library service offers access to the Internet - the vast majority free of charge.
8. Over 4,000 staff work in public libraries.
9. It costs each resident of London just over £20 per annum for the public library service.
10. A total of almost £150,000,000 was spent on the public library network. Public libraries generated almost £12,000,000, much of which was ploughed back into front line services.