There are about 3100 public libraries in England and 460 mobile libraries.
More than 60% of people have a library ticket
96% of people believe that public libraries are a valuable community resource
There were over 274 million visits to public libraries during 2002/3, an increase of almost 4 million on the previous year
35% of the population visit public libraries at least once a month
More people visit libraries than go to cinemas or attend football matches
There are 92.4million books in 3,500 public libraries and every year more than 318million book loans
There are a further 34million issues of other material, including DVDs, videos, talking books
Libraries provide over 60million hours a year of high speed access to the internet through the People's Network
Library staff answer 58.5million enquiries a year
More thatn 22,000 library staff run the service.
In "Frankie and Stankie" Barbara Trapido returns to her South African roots
with a highly autobiographical novel which tackles one of the most divisive
political issues of the twentieth century as she tells the story of Dinah
growing up in 1950s South Africa. Using simple straightforward language, Trapido
wields humour to great effect in exposing the lethal combination of prejudice
and ignorance.Dinah’s father, a maths lecturer, shouts loudly at the daily
championing of apartheid on the radio. Her mother, a quieter dissenter, makes
friends with Francis-the-Gardener, an Indian who helps her create a gorgeously
exotic front yard. Since racism is not a part of the de Bondt household, Dinah
is mystified when she is asked at school if she would ‘rather have a native girl
or a koelie to make her sandwiches.’ (page 30). She has never heard a black
women referred to as a ‘native girl’ and has no idea what a ‘koelie’ is. The
novel follows Dinah through the increasingly dark days of the National Party’s
rule, to her marriage to a one-time political activist and the couple’s arrival
in 60s Britain. As Dinah grows from a thin asthmatic little girl into a bright
stylish university student, she makes a succession of increasingly colourful
best friends: Angela chooses the non-academic domestic science route and is
displaced by a wilder friend; Catherine, the daughter of a rabidly anti-Catholic
mother, eventually converts to Catholicism; and Maud is the daughter of a
coalminer’s wife and her racehorse-owning lover. Shortly after Dinah arrives at
university in Durban she begins a three-year affair with the urbane but slippery
Didi which finally ends when she realises that he has betrayed her. Her
friendship with Sam leads to marriage and then to London, as Sam flees the
persistent attentions of Special Branch.
