West Lothian’s library service has had a busy winter with a range of activities bringing adults and children through the doors.
Author visits and other book and digital events saw almost 20,000 attendances between October last year and March, councillors heard.
A report followed the first phase of a new Library Development plan aimed at keeping libraries valuable and viable in an increasing digital age where access to knowledge is at fingertip.
The report to the Corporate Policy and resources PDSP said: “Library activity remained strong during the reporting period, with 1,742 organised sessions attracting almost 20,000 attendances.
“Digital use also continued to grow, with increased use of e-books, e-audiobooks and e-magazines and an increase in BorrowBox membership.
“A new West Lothian Libraries app was also launched, providing customers with improved mobile access to their library accounts and services.
A wide range of activities included Bookbug sessions for youngsters, Class/nursery visits, Storytelling, Book groups, Lego clubs and Craft sessions.
Author/storyteller visits also complemented national events such as Scottish Book Week in November. Author visits alone attracted more than 220 people.
BorrowBox the digital library service which runs nationally now has more that 7,000 subscribers in West Lothian. The report said: “We have seen the sharpest increase in downloads seen in the borrowing of e-magazines One click access to all services is proving very popular as it is making it easier for our customers to access their content all in one place.”
It added: “Since the beginning of October 2025, 8,802 e-Books, 13,314 e-Talking books and 20,923 e-magazines have been downloaded by our customers. This is an increase of 3.24% for the downloads of e-Books, 9.77% for e-Talking books and an 19.2% increase for the downloads of e-Magazines.
“This shows that our customers are accessing more digital content on average. We continue to promote the service on the WLC website, social media, WLC plasma screens, at events and sharing information with colleagues and partners and library staff will demonstrate using the BorrowBox app to customers.”
Libraries continue to work with local schools encouraging classes to visit for information sessions, storytelling and activities. There were 237 sessions held in the six-month period, with 3,511 children and 652 adults visiting as part of their school day.
They have also developed as Warm Hubs over the winter period, with access to free books, public access PCs, board games and jigsaws available to pass the time.
Alan Colquhoun, Customer & Communities Manager told councillors: “The reporting period demonstrates strong levels of community, educational and digital engagement.
“Completion of the first Library Development Plan provides a natural point from which to progress the modernisation of library services.”
By Stuart Sommerville, Local Democracy Reporter
