By ANNA USHER

There is something about Mosman Library that people simply cannot resist.

In the year to June 2025, residents borrowed a staggering 342,103 items. That is nearly 12 books per person in the LGA, placing Mosman second in New South Wales for loans per resident.

The only library in the state that out-borrows it? Lane Cove, by a whisker – 11.91 loans per capita against Mosman’s 11.69.

Woollahra (11.24) and Willoughby (10.70) are well behind.

The NSW median sits at 4.49 loans per capita. Mosman residents are borrowing at more than 2.6 times the state average.

And here is the detail that really tells the story: almost 29 per cent of the library’s 14,508 members do not live in the LGA at all.

That is 4,180 people who bypass their own local library to come to Mosman’s instead. Mosman Library’s reputation, it turns out, reaches well beyond Military Road.

North Sydney’s Stanton Library, which serves an LGA of more than 72,000 residents, recorded 610,479 loans in 2024-25 and drew more than 315,000 visits during the year.

The spending gap between the two neighbours is striking. North Sydney Council allocates $67.41 per resident to library services – less than half the $145.61 Mosman Council spends, and below the $89.82 per resident Lane Cove Council commits. Mosman’s expenditure per capita is the fourth highest in NSW.

A national revival

Mosman is not alone – and the trend is national.

Loans of books, DVDs and other items across Australia are at their highest rate in five years, with overall borrowing up 23 per cent according to the Australian Public Libraries Statistical Report 2023-24. In that year alone, Australians collectively borrowed 119 million physical items and 55 million digital items – an average of 6.5 loans per person nationally.

Mosman’s 11.69 per capita sits nearly double that national figure.

Researchers and librarians point to two forces driving the revival: cost-of-living pressure and a growing hunger for genuine community connection.

With household budgets squeezed, libraries offer something increasingly rare – a welcoming public space where spending money is not a prerequisite of entry.

Research from the State Library of NSW found 55 per cent of library users believe their local library improves their wellbeing, and 64 per cent view it as a place to belong.

At a time when more than 40 per cent of Australians aged 15 to 25 report feelings of loneliness, according to National and State Libraries Australasia, that matters.

More than books

Today’s public library looks very different from the hushed reading rooms of a generation ago.

Across Australia, libraries now function as community hubs – offering digital literacy programs, children’s story time, makerspace technology including 3D printers and laser cutters, and “Library of Things” collections that let members borrow camping equipment, sewing machines and tools alongside their novels.

Mosman Library ran 997 programs in 2024-25, attended by 22,448 people – roughly one program for every 29 residents.

The library also recorded more than 256,000 visits during the year. It is a number that reflects a library as much about people as it is about pages.