BRITISH LIBRARY RESEARCH AND INNOVATION REPORT 3

The Impact of Digital Resources on British Library Reading Rooms


3. WHAT OTHER FACTORS MIGHT AFFECT READING ROOMS?

Before considering digital resources, it is worth pointing out that many other factors may affect the demand for reading room space.

Readers come from different walks of life, from different places. For example:

It is easy to imagine many demographic and other factors which can affect the demand for reading room space. By way of illustration:

It is not possible to determine the size of these potential effects without detailed study. However, it is easy to imagine that the these effects may exceed effects due to digital resources, at least in some cases; by way of illustration, the current forecasts predict a 10% - 19% increase in demand over the next five years, before any change attributable to digital resources. This context is proposed as background to consideration of the effects of digital resources.


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Converted to HTML by Isobel Stark of UKOLN, August 1996