LIBRARIES in Middlesbrough are enjoying an unprecedented boom, recording a 24 per cent rise in the number of visitors.

The town's 13 libraries attracted 5,051 visits for every 1,000 residents in the 12 months to March last year, up from only 4,062 per 1,000 people in 2002/2003.

The increase was six times the national rise of 4.3 per cent, according to figures compiled by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA).

There were also increases in Sunderland (14.7 per cent), North Yorkshire (12 per cent) and Durham (5.6 per cent).

Middlesbrough also bucked the national trend by increasing "active borrowers" by 9.7 per cent compared to a fall nationly of 6.5 per cent.

It showed new visitors welcomed the opportunity to borrow books, as well as new attractions such as free Internet use, e-mailing sessions and audio borrowing.

Chris Mellor, Middlesbrough's chief librarian, said the town was reaping the reward of £2m spent on refurbishments, with £700,000 still to be spent on its central library.

She said: "Although people are coming in to use our computers, they are also coming to borrow books, because we have a wider range with more best-sellers."

A separate study this week echoed recent criticism of libraries for failing to open at convenient times, particularly evenings and Saturdays.

The Sheffield University research found only 62 out of 4,800 libraries were open more than 60 hours a week - the normal opening period of most shops.

As a result, people turned to the source they trusted least - tabloid newspapers - for information.

Several areas saw a fall in visitors in 2003/2004, including Newcastle (9.8 per cent), Darlington (8.1 per cent), Hartlepool (4.3 per cent), Redcar and Cleveland (4.1 per cent) and Stockton (3.6 per cent).

Hartlepool had the most library visitors per 1,000 residents (7,752) in the North-East.

Only Newcastle (20.1 per cent) matched Middlesbrough by recruiting more active borrowers. Sunderland (5.7 per cent) and Hartlepool (5.1 per cent) had the biggest falls. The CIPFA hailed the figures as "heartening and hard evidence of the reversal in the decline of public library attendance".