Effects of Allowing Food and Drinks in Japanese Libraries

Abstract

We investigated the effects of the current practice of allowing food and drinks in Japanese libraries. A questionnaire was sent to 1000 libraries, of which 356 public and 329 university libraries responded. Over half the respondent libraries allow food and drinks in the library. They also report an increase in library use based on measurements such as the number of gate counts after they changed the policy regarding food and drinks in the library. Furthermore, most of the responding librarians did not report a noticeable increase in related stains after relaxing the policy and many users gave favorable evaluations for allowing food and drinks in libraries.