UK Library Statistics for Loans, Stock, and Borrowers

Library statistics 2018-19 provides a multi-faceted view of UK public library operations across a single financial year. The dataset includes six Excel tabs tracking core library activities: loans, stock levels, additions, deletions, reservations, and borrower counts. This structured breakdown allows for analysis of library usage, collection management, and service demand.

Use Cases

• Analyzing library service demand based on loans and reservation figures
• Tracking collection lifecycle management based on stock, additions, and deletions data
• Assessing library reach and membership based on borrower counts
• Evaluating financial year performance across multiple library metrics

Strengths

• Provides a structured, multi-tab view of library operations across six key metrics
• Cross-platform presence on eu_open_data and uk_data suggests official importance and reliability
• Covers a defined financial year period (2018-19) for consistent temporal comparison

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing: row count, column names, and specific license are unknown
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates (2026-04-29 and 2020-11-13) create uncertainty about data currency
• Lacks granularity on geographic coverage or library-specific breakdowns within the national figures

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service

Collection Method

Likely compiled from library management systems across UK public libraries.

Time Range

Financial year 2018-19

Freshness

Last updated dates conflict between 2026-04-29 and 2020-11-13.

Geography

Likely United Kingdom (inferred from platform 'uk_data' and organization)