Getting the opening hours right is therefore very important. People were asked to tick all the opening hours that suit them best. This topic, more than any other, raised the question of the non-user. It is obvious that the majority of respondents were in the library because the opening hours did not present a major difficulty to them. Had the survey targeted, for example, local and family history societies, workplaces and education establishments, the preferred hours might have been rather different.
More research is needed.
Meanwhile there is some demand for libraries to open outside their current hours. Attitudes to new methods of service delivery Customers were asked to rate on a scale of 1-6 the appeal to them of computerising the card catalogue and indexes, digitising maps, and the photograph collection. The responses were analysed both in terms of overall popularity and according to life situation. Digitising the Card Catalogue attracted 522 responses with photos getting 487 and maps 488 replies. More Employed and Other Unwaged Adults than Learners or Retired attached high value to digitising photograph and map collections.