Illustration of a man borrowing books from the library.

Here during a book sale in Rennes in 2011. -

C. Allain / APEI / 20 Minutes

  • This time, the people of Bordeaux were warned of imminent confinement and rushed to libraries to stock up on books and DVDs.

  • The network of ten libraries recorded the loan of 30,000 documents Thursday afternoon, just before the entry into force of the new confinement.

  • In Bordeaux, a fifth of the inhabitants are registered on the network of municipal libraries, which is a higher rate than the average for towns with more than 100,000 inhabitants.

There was a scramble for cultural products before the lockdown went into effect on Friday.

Shelves depopulated, families borrowing entire baskets of books: the municipal libraries of Bordeaux were robbed in the hours before their closure before the reconfinement, said Friday an official of this service.

About 30,000 documents (books, periodicals, DVDs etc.) were borrowed Thursday afternoon before the closure of the ten libraries of the network, one of the most important in France, according to Yann Bourion, acting director of the libraries of Bordeaux.

The day before, the day of the presidential reconfinement announcement, 10,000 documents had already been taken out by users.

Borrowing capacities doubled for the occasion

One third of the material available to the general public is currently outside of libraries.

"It's quite exceptional, we tend to turn around 20% usually, assures Yann Bourion.

There was a rush on libraries, as there was on bookstores ”.

“People were worried about not having any more cultural food for a month and as we explained on social networks that we could borrow double the documents (30 instead of 15), there was a little buzz .

Suddenly, we saw families of three children leave with 90 documents, 30 per child… ”, he says.

The borrowing period has also been doubled to two months.

"We were able to warn the public, not like during the first confinement where we had to close very suddenly without users being able to come and borrow," recalls Yann Bourion.

He says he is “delighted” by this scenario: “This is the raison d'être of libraries and it shows the public's interest in culture.

Too bad we do not have this attendance in normal times!

"

A "good registration rate" in Bordeaux

A fifth of the Bordeaux population, or around 50,000 people, is registered with the municipal library network which employs 230 people and includes 1.3 million documents, whether or not they can be borrowed.

"It's a very good registration rate, the average for cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants is 11%", explains Yann Bourion, for whom the free network is one of the reasons for its success.

“But we have not found the attendance levels before 2020”, a year marked by the pandemic, he notes.

"People circulate less".

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  • Aquitaine

  • Covid 19

  • Confinement

  • Bordeaux

  • Coronavirus

  • Culture

  • Library