Libraries of Milan

LOM tells how Milan reads through numbers, maps, and charts.

Twenty-six municipal libraries distributed across the nine city districts — from historic neighbourhoods to the outskirts — form a capillary network of public spaces. Each year they record millions of loans, tens of thousands of active readers, and a vast, ever-changing selection of titles.

The open data from the City of Milan allow us to observe these dynamics over time: which books are most requested, in which neighbourhoods people read the most, how the demographic profile of readers changes, and how long books are kept before being returned.