世論 What Japan Thinks

A recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into public libraries, with the report in particular looking at what services people want to see.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 23th of November 2011 1,092 members of the goo Research monitor group completed an internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

I’m sure that every time this subject appears I talk about joining my local library, yet I am still to do anything about it!

Research results

From the sample, 47.2% of them often or occasionally visit public libraries. They were asked the following question.

Q1: What services would you like to see at your public library? (Sample size=515, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Search for books in stock	275	53.4%
Reserve books	264	51.3%
Read ebooks	186	36.1%
Look up library facilities, opening hours, etc	182	35.3%
Provision of wireless LAN hotspot	175	34.0%
Internet-connected computers in the library	162	31.5%
Digital music distribution service	138	26.8%
Provision of space to listen to music, watch movies	121	23.5%
Other	22	4.3%

In addition, 35.5% often or sometimes used the internet service provided at their library.

A recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at libraries and the internet. Note that the questions here are focusing on a public web site for the library, rather than internet terminals available within the library.

Demographics

Between the 27th and 29th of October 2010 1,068 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.7% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 020.6% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, 16.0% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

I’m not sure what sort of ebook or music distribution facilities are available on public-facing library sites – my local library has none of that new-fangled nonsense, just searching and reserving books.

Oh, and don’t ask me why the answers to Q1 were rounded to zero decimal places but SQ1 and SQ1 were rounded to one decimal place.
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Just a very quick translation for today, a look with japan.internet.com at a survey conducted by iBridge into public libraries and the internet.

Demographics

On the first of December 2008 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.7% of the sample were female, 13.0% in their twenties, 39.0% in their thirties, 33.0% in their forties, 9.0% in their fifties, and 6.0% in their sixties.

Note that internet services here are not public-access terminals in the library, but an external web site for the library.

I’ve never actually been to my local library, but I have checked out their web page for opening hours.
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