The old man and the mother, or regular vs. occasional users: Four portraits of readers in Albi public libraries

This article presents four portraits of readers, from very regular to more occasional library users, drawn from an analysis of visitors to the Albi public library network. Drawing on the statistics most strongly correlated with the frequency of library use, four typical profiles result from the users' reading practices, opinions, expectations, and socio-demographic categories. While this descriptive analysis leads to as many "typical user" profiles as there are readers, it does indicate that once all the socio-demographic variables are taken into account, only age and gender have a significant impact in shaping the reading practices and social representations profiled in the survey.
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