Libraries Surpassing One Million Digital Book Checkouts

[tubemonkey]

Record Number of Libraries Surpass One Million eBook and Audiobook Checkouts in 2015

Digital book lending continues significant growth, with audiobooks increasing fastest

BOSTON— January 07, 2016 — Librarians across the nation are celebrating the record-setting pace that their digital collections are lending as they convene at the American Library Association’s (ALA) Midwinter Conference, January 8-11, 2015. OverDrive announced today that among the hundreds of libraries across North America that have set annual records for lending digital books during 2015, 33 library systems exceeded one million digital books circulated. Additionally, all systems experienced significant year-over-year growth from 2014.

As the industry leader in digital lending for public and school libraries, OverDrive reports that in 2015 public library readers borrowed more than 169 million eBooks, audiobooks, digital periodicals and streaming video. This represents an increase of 24 percent over 2014. Digital audiobooks, in particular, grew at the highest rate (+36%). See more 2015 statistics here.

The following libraries circulated at least one million digital books in 2015:

3 million or more digital books circulated
-- Toronto Public Library (ON) +31% growth over 2014

2 million or more digital books circulated
-- King County Library System (WA) +25%
-- New York Public Library (NY) +24%

1 million or more digital books circulated
-- Los Angeles Public Library (CA) +40%
-- Seattle Public Library (WA) +24%
-- Cleveland Public Library (OH) +26%
-- Hennepin County Library (MN) +14%
-- Cuyahoga County Public Library (OH) +37%

Note: I limited the last list to the Top 5 libraries. See article for complete list.

[PeterT]

I'd like to think I've helped out the Toronto Public Library figures.

[Dazrin]

Interesting.

Looking at the Seattle area as a whole (both King County and Seattle libraries), the area is at over 3M downloads. Apparently people who work for Microsoft and Amazon like digital content. Who would have guessed that? The King County area only has 2M people vs 2.6M in just Toronto, so slightly higher per capita rates. That doesn't include the Ontario Library Service Consortium which also had 1M+ downloads but has ~13.6M people bringing up total books but dropping the per capita rate.

The other linked data is also interesting.

• Total digital titles borrowed from libraries & schools: 169 million (+24% over 2014)
o eBook circulation: 125 million (+19% growth over 2014)
o Digital audiobook circulation: 43 million (+36% growth over 2014)
o Streaming video circulation (+83% over 2014)
o Introduced in late 2014, the circulation of digital magazines and newspapers also grew significantly in 2015
• 33 library systems circulated 1 million or greater digital books during 2015
• Reader visits to OverDrive-powered library & school websites: 750 million (+14% increase from 2014)

...

Top eBooks borrowed from libraries
1. The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins (Penguin Publishing Group)
2. All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr (Scribner)
3. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn (Crown/Archetype)
4. The Martian, Andy Weir (Crown/Archetype)
5. Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee (HarperCollins)

Top digital audiobooks borrowed from libraries
1. The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins (Books on Tape)
2. All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr (Simon & Schuster Audio)
3. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn (Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group)
4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling (Pottermore)
5. Yes Please, Amy Poehler (HarperCollins)

Top digital books borrowed from libraries in other categories

Adult nonfiction eBook: Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand (Random House Publishing Group).

Children/YA fiction eBook: The Maze Runner, James Dashner (Random House Children’s books).
Children/YA nonfiction eBook: Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson (Penguin Young Readers Group).
Children/young adult fiction audiobook: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling (Pottermore)
Read-Along eBooks: Scaredy Squirrel at Night, Mélanie Watt (Kids Can Press Ltd.)

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Interesting.

Looking at the Seattle area as a whole (both King County and Seattle libraries), the area is at over 3M downloads. Apparently people who work for Microsoft and Amazon like digital content. Who would have guessed that? The King County area only has 2M people vs 2.6M in just Toronto, so slightly higher per capita rates. That doesn't include the Ontario Library Service Consortium which also had 1M+ downloads but has ~13.6M people bringing up total books but dropping the per capita rate.

Monkeys like digital content too. King County is my go to library; followed by Seattle. Most of the library systems in western Washington allow reciprocal borrowing. Puget Sound loves digital books.

I'm glad to see this increase, especially with audiobooks (my preferred format).

[tdonline]

A little surprised Los Angeles is in the 1M club. Doesn't it have one of the largest e-book collections in N. America? And it's the second biggest city and largest county in the US. You'd think it would at least get into the 2M tier.

I, for one, am a big fan of LAPL's digital collection!

[Conan46]

Have a card from my town library, and I doubled my ebook access by getting a library card from a library 20 minutes from where I live. I now have a pretty large selection of ebooks to choose from and am taking advantage of it
On a less positive note, I buy fewer ebooks now mostly due to the price increases from publishers, and I imagine I'm not the only one. I expect the number of ebook check outs to double in another year.

[harriska2]

Yep, have probably saved about $75 in not buying books due to my ebook library access last year.

[ottdmk]

I currently have 133 books on my OPL wishlist, with 64 available right now. My e-book buying has shrunk to a trickle. Library support is one of the main reasons I love my H2O so much.