National Reading Barometer Special Issue Brief: Libraries

This special issue brief summarises the 2023 National Reading Survey and National Reading Barometer findings related to libraries.

Public libraries are crucial institutions for the support of reading cultures across the world. This is especially true for countries like South Africa, where high levels of inequality and poverty, coupled with a commercialised reading materials industry (selling locally published and imported materials/ books/ magazines/ etc), makes owning books and other reading materials unaffordable for the majority of the population.