Explain two reasons why the demand for library services has fallen
AQA AS-Level Paper 1 June 2018 Insert
Extract B (lines 2–3) states: ‘a recent survey found that only a third of adults had box used a library in the previous year, a significant fall since data collection began in 2005’. Explain two reasons why the demand for library services has fallen. (10 marks)
Demand is the quantity of goods and services that consumers are willing and able to buy at a given price. A market is a place where buyers and sellers meet to exchange goods and services. Library services can include renting books and movies, but also using facilities like printers.
One reason explaining why demand for library services has fallen may be a lack of advertising. Extract B, line 18, mentions that the Department for Culture aims to increase awareness of what libraries do. This suggests that libraries are not properly advertising their services. This would lead to low demand, since few people would be willing and able to pay for library services at each given price due to a lack of awareness of their services. Consumers may not know opening times or the full list of services that libraries offer, especially in comparison to book shops or stationary shops who are advertising on social media.
A second reason why demand for library services has fallen might be a change in trends. Substitute goods like e-books are becoming more accessible, cheaper, and more popular. It is also arguably more trendy for people to sit and work in cafes. As services and goods like cafes and e-books become more popular, demand for library services will fall as they are in competitive demand. The diagram below shows a left shift in the demand for library services, which leads to a fall in both the equilibrium quantity and the price for their services.
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