More libraries offering free membership to young adults
Dutch libraries have offered free membership to children for years, and an increasing number is now also extending that to young adults. Two years ago, almost a fifth of municipal libraries offered free membership to people over 18. Now, that number has doubled, according to a survey by researcher and librarian Mark Deckers.
The libraries that offer free memberships to young adults often cap it at 27 years of age, but there are many examples of free memberships in the age range of 23 to 30. Two libraries offer free memberships up to the age of 65. Some limit these free memberships to a certain number of loans per year.
By extending the free memberships, libraries want to convey that they are still useful for grownups. The free membership for children means that many children have a library card. But in the age group above 18, only a small number of people still visit the library. In the late 1990s, 2.3 million adults had library cards in the Netherlands. Two decades later, that number has dropped to 1.2 million.
“After 2021, we see a turnaround. That is partly due to the free emmbership above the age of 18,” librarian and researcher Deckers said to NOS. “I am pleased with the libraries that are taking steps. That is why it is good that research is done into a good way to increase the reach of the library.”
The Zuid-Hollandse Eilanden Library in Spijkenesse started offering a free basic subscription for people aged 18 to 30 in 2018 and plans to expand this to all adults soon, director Victor Thissen told NOS. The basic free subscription allows adults to borrow five books per year. The library wants to remove the financial threshold to books. “We saw that many young people dropped out just before they turned 18. They could not pay that ten or twenty euros per year or did not want to. They then unsubscribed. Well, we’re trying to get them back.”
Since 2018, the Spijkenisse library has gained 5,700 extra members between the ages of 18 and 30. “That is a huge number. To bind them to us, we organize film screenings, courses, lectures,” Thissen said. “And what do you think of reading activities for small children? Because we are not only talking about young people and students but also young fathers and mothers. So that, when they are a bit older and want to use the library again, they have the library at the forefront of their minds.”
