The Association of Senior Children’s and Education Librarians’ national promise states children should be actively involved in decisions about service developments and encourages every library service to provide opportunities for children and young people to participate in consultation activities. The Young People’s Library Survey provides this opportunity, and has been updated to reflect that public libraries and the communities they serve are experiencing rapid change.
Young people and libraries
The Young People's Library Survey is targeted at three distinct age groups:
- pre-school to key stage 1, where visitors are asked about the family friendliness of libraries and their support for young children’s speech, language and communication
- key stage 2, where visitors are asked about library activities and homework
- key stage 3 and 4, where visitors are asked about volunteering and cultural engagement.
Separating the survey into three questionnaires has considerable benefits for libraries. Though some questions including demographic details are common across all three target groups, the survey focuses on the specific needs of each particular age group and the way in which libraries can support them.
Download the latest report
This report reveals the opinions, needs and thoughts of 36,615 children and young people who visited a wide range of libraries between the academic period September 2015 to July 2018. Read about the positive impact 315 participating libraries have on children and young people across England and Wales.
The CIPFA service
We provide you with questionnaires that reflect the needs of the sector, provide you with online and hard copy options to collect and return customer feedback, scan and analyse your returns and provide you with a comprehensive, comparative report.
How the survey has been used
Participating authorities have used the survey to:
- inform future developments and improve services
- identify children’s requirements and perceptions of libraries’ services, improving stock management, staff training and service development
- empower young people, giving them a voice and involvement in services and future delivery
- demonstrate outcomes against the children’s promise and other standards
- review changes following library promotion or marketing, or following changes to services.
"Libraries are crucial in enabling adults and families to access Community Learning. They provide neutral and attractive spaces for learning to take place which is a particularly important factor for families where the home learning environment may be challenging."
Susan Chambers - Head of Family & Intergenerational Learning, NIACE
Contact us
For more information, please contact E: research@cipfa.org or download the brochure.