PROJECT_LEAP

By the time of the final assessment, the estimated percentage
of patrons under the age of 25 went down from 84% to 75%,
indicating an increase in the number of adult patrons visiting the
library. Put another way, at the baseline, for every ten patrons who
entered the library, 8 were under the age of 24. Now 7 are under
the age of 24, and three are older. This shift happened gradually
over the course of the nine-month pilot.
It’s also important to note that these are estimated numbers.
However, this shift in demographics is consistent with observations
by pilot librarians and Worldreader staff. See Table 6 for a
breakdown of patrons by age. 18
TABLE 6
Distribution of Patrons by Age Group
0-12 13-18 19-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55 and above
25% 31% 19% 10% 9% 5% 1%
A number of hypotheses may explain this shift. As mentioned,
Worldreader encouraged library staff to broaden the scope of their
outreach activities to include more adults. Second, even though
much of this outreach was targeted at children many parents and
teachers came to the library to see “what the fuss was about,”
with the new e-reader technology.
The gender balance at the library stayed the same over the course
of the project. At the time of the baseline, librarians estimated 53%
of patrons were female, and this remained unchanged over the
course of the program. 19
Additional demographic information on patrons (how far away they
lived from the libraries, means of transport used to arrive at the
libraries, etc) can be found in the appendices of this report.
18
Exact records of patron ages are not kept by most of the pilot libraries. As such, project managers estimate these numbers.
19
Data on one library was excluded because it was incomplete. In the case of the library that started late, data from the first
month of implementation was used.
Project LEAP
Final Report - February 2015
20