Shanghai retains traditional book-lovers in 'Digital Age'   

“数字时代”上海人仍嗜读书 190万人次拥有借阅证

截至2012年底，上海市民中共有190万人次拥有上海图书馆及市中心图书馆的借阅证，其中一位“逛馆达人”到过41家图书馆，而借阅量最大的一位读者去年借过3134册图书。

Shanghai (CNS)— Shanghai residents are still clinging to traditional printed books in the digital age, according to a white paper issued by the Shanghai Library on Sunday.

The "2012 Reading Report on Shanghai Public Libraries" is the first published white paper on library book reading among Shanghai readers.

By the end of 2012, a total of 1.9 million Shanghai residents had gotten reader's cards from the Shanghai Library and the Shanghai City library, the report shows. One frequent library goer in the city visited 41 libraries, while the most avid reader borrowed 3,134 books last year.

The paper shows that the average number of books borrowed by each reader in Shanghai last year stood at 27.73, much higher than the average number of paper books read by Chinese in other cities.

The readership was fairly evenly distributed between males, at 52 percent, and females, at 48 percent, while readers aged between 20 to 40 accounted for 62 percent of all adult readers.

The report also shows that readers at the Shanghai Library and the Shanghai City library came from over 100 countries in Asia, Europe and the Americas, a manifestation of the city as an international metropolis.

In 2012, the total circulation of Shanghai City library exceeded 37.71 million, up 23.5 percent over the same period of the previous year. About 50,000 readers have borrowed books from the library, and books on literature, history, geography and industrial science are the most popular categories among readers in Shanghai.

Currently, the "smart card system" used by the Shanghai City library incorporates 249 institutions and 283 service outlets