Heythrop Library

In May 2026 we invited 361 library users (those with active accounts) to respond to a user survey, and 101 people replied. We will share the findings, their responses and our comments (where appropriate) to this user survey 2026.

We have used our blog a couple of times to write about our users, but when we conducted this survey, we managed to obtain a couple of nuggets about the demographics which we had been unable to capture before.

Of the 101 respondents, the majority (83 people) benefits from free membership:

Those who responded fall into the following age groups:

16-18: 1
19-24: 1
25-35: 5
36-46: 15
47-57: 19
58-68: 29
68+: 31

We asked the respondents to give us the postcode where they lived. This was an optional question, and 93 provided information. We created the map below, which you can compare to the map in a previous post, or if you are reading this in years to come, use our Blog’s tag maps – Heythrop Library:

72 postcodes were complete, 15 incomplete London postcodes could not be added to the map above, and 4 other postcodes were incomplete and outside London; finally, outside the UK, one user picked Rome, and another Dublin. Those outside the UK do not have borrowing rights.

What does this survey data show: unsurprisingly, for a library which offers mostly printed materials (ca. 99.99% of our materials are in a physical format), the majority of our library users live in Greater London, or not far away. Most of our members are not in the typical student age (16-26), with a significant number of our readers being older than 50. This might reflect an idea that those who are older reflect more on the meaning of life, death and more about theology and philosophy, or simply: those who are younger might be more preoccupied with their studies, careers and establishing their lives. (Of course, anyone is welcome, and age is not a marker of how much a person questions aspects of life, religion or spirituality!).

If you had asked me for “anecdotal evidence”, I would say that this is what I would have expected from engaging with our library users in the reading room on a daily basis.

CG