libraries usefulness in Jhb, South Africa

[PandathePanda]

Stats was released today of the library system in Johannesburg, South Africa. And it shows that libraries is not dying, but it is dying.

Johannesburg - Young Joburgers in school and university still use libraries - but not necessarily for reading.

It appears that while the number of people using library facilities are on the rise, it is mostly for studying, research or for access to the internet, according to the Johannesburg's Director of Libraries Nobuntu Mpendulo.

Here is some fun facts, and how law abiding our nation is:

The City of Johannesburg has 87 libraries.

- Of the 87, 67 of them have LAN or Wi-Fi access to the internet.

- On the day the Wi-Fi access at the Sandton library was launched, visitors downloading movies had jammed the system before Johannesburg Mayor Parks Tau could even do a trial run during his speech.

- More than 5.3 million people made use of libraries between June 2014 and May 2015.

- A total of 342 929 books were issued during the same period.

- The most used books in Johannesburg libraries are children's books, textbooks and reference material.

But one of the comments sums up the experience I had in most libraries I've visited:

When I was a kid, I used to be excited going out with the family to the public library. Now the books are really old and outdated like they belong more in a museum or a dumpster for recycling. You can get better reading material from even a 2nd hand book store than a public library

http://news24.com/news24/SouthAfrica...evant-20150721