By Mike Donachie

HUGE NUMBERS of people are turning from books to high-tech information sources in libraries in Perth and Kinross, new figures have revealed.

In only a year, almost 100,000 bookings were made for computers in the local authority’s 13 libraries, an increase of one-third on the previous year.

This has been hailed as evidence of “a new dimension” in library use, coming as part of efforts to encourage more people to visit their public libraries.

The Perth and Kinross library service figures show that during the financial year 2004 to 2005, which ended less than two weeks ago, their “people’s network” computers were booked a total of 93,910 times. In the year before, 70,792 bookings were made. About half of the bookings, 46,461, were made at the A. K. Bell Library in Perth, which has 20 computers, while the rest were spread around the council’s additional 40 PCs.

The next busiest single library was Blairgowrie with 13,384 bookings, followed by Crieff with 10,775.

Principal librarian Iain MacRae expressed surprise at the volume. “We had a good idea that we were in line to top the previous year’s total, but to be so close to 100,000 bookings is phenomenal.

“The computers have added a new dimension to the library service and staff have been uniformly busy in taking bookings and making sure everyone gets the most out of their sessions,” he said.

“Were it not for technical problems with some machines I’m sure that the 100,000 figure could have been breached. We are very grateful to the hard work of our staff in servicing such a high figure.

“It has to be remembered that while the Government provided the finance to implement fast dial-up lines and buy the machines, there was no additional input into resourcing the service.”

The information technology service—advertised on mobile libraries with the slogan “Find IT at the library”—is only part of efforts to update libraries, with DVD and compact disc rental among the others.

The year 2004-05 was the second full year of computer provision and the third in which the PCs have been available.

Many older people and people living in rural areas have learned how to use computers through the popular Byte-size Pieces courses run by adult learning staff.