In October 2025 we published a post ‘Who are our users in October 2025?‘, and last month we offered a glimpse of where our users live by a news item Mapping our users: are you on it? What follows is not only an update on numbers, but also is a qualitative better report on our members in April 2026.
Comparison of total numbers on database
So in October 2025 we had a total of 455 records of Heythrop Library borrowers on our database, and as of 1 April 2026 we had 500. In October our data was marred by 70 borrowers for whom we had not assigned a patron group or statistical category, and we were still working out the best way to tackle this problem:
Fast forward 5 months, and we have managed to improve the quality of our data, in particular the statistical categories we apply, and so the above chart compares to the following breakdown on 1 April 2026:
Expired versus active accounts
In October 2025 a great total of 134 member records had expired, now it’s 116 members, but a lot are up for deletion – our policy is that we will delete records after an account in our database has been inactive after expiry for 6 months, and unless someone has not returned a book, we will delete their account. Of these 116, I will delete 26 accounts in the coming weeks (This process can be automated by I prefer to check manually, as some times there is a reason to keep someone on the database for longer). Also there are now 23 borrowers with “no initial payments” (plus 15 from October), 9 will be deleted soon, as we give any applicant 3 months to pay the initial admin charge, or for their membership, but then add 1 more month before deleting their application/data.
Patron categories
So the breakdown by patron group looks as follows:
The categories applied might be confusing, as Jesuits or staff of the Jesuits in Britain, as well as [Other] “Religious” (basically an ordained priest of any Christian denomination or member of a Christian order) also get free membership, but we have different privileges for these two groups from the “Free” membership patron group.
Statistical breakdown of “free” category
So the “Free” category can be split into a number of statistical categories, and the 227 borrowers on our system with a “free” category fall under the further “labels”:
Free: 48
ISC students: 45
Master’s students: 34
PhD students: 26
UG students: 22
ISC staff: 21
LJC students: 14
Academics: 7
RE teachers: 7
Six-form students: 3
The “Free” statistical label within the “Free” patron category sounds tautological, but there are 48 borrowers who have told us that they do not have an income, this should exclude those who benefit from receiving a pension, but we only changed the wording recently to avoid those who receiving pensions benefitting from free membership; as we believe some pensioners are in a position to pay our modest membership fees.
Where our users live
One disclaimer: some time ago we decided not to include postal addresses in our members’ records. However, since moving to Koha, we have reintroduced this. Why? Unlike before, when we had an application form with data stored outside our library management system, we do not keep membership data anywhere else any more, so we need to capture where someone lives. This is in case we need to send them a letter by post. Of the 273 members for whom we have a postcode/address, 154 live at an address within a London postal district, and 119 outside of London. To illustrate where the 119 borrowers outside the capital live the following map might be useful:
If you live outside a London postcode, are not on the map, but are a Heythrop Library borrower, please contact us with your postal address. If you are not yet a member of the Library, please check out our membership page to consider joining us.
Maybe next time I update you on our library members/user I will give you a breakdown of the large group of Religious – i.e. those Christian ordained priests or members of Christian orders…
CG
What are your thoughts about the above?