Your Library's E-book Results --- The Rankings!

[Fbone]

Updated the list for March. I waited until after the Harper Collins new terms began.

Singapore added over 1500 titles and moved to 3rd.

Brooklyn added 824 titles. Made up for lost time.

Unfortunately Wash DC only 40 new titles.

Seattle's numbers are under reported due to their website changes. They now split all digital into separate formats so there is no longer any way to view all ebooks.

[tubemonkey]

4 of my libraries are in the Top 20

[elemenoP]

Yay Brooklyn! They got lots of Haruki Murakami and Kurt Vonnegut. And also.... the JUSTIN BIEBER bio!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Squeeeeeeeeeeeeee! :0

xoxo,
eP

[SeaBookGuy]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Seattle's numbers are under reported due to their website changes. They now split all digital into separate formats so there is no longer any way to view all ebooks.

I don't think the new catalog (website) has anything to do with it? All that does is provide a link to our Overdrive page, which is the same as it's always been - Epub and PDF continue to be "lumped together" as one search, and Mobi another. One thing that has changed is that we now have one entry per title for multiple formats of the exact same book.

P. S. It seems we get our new books monthly - around the third week or so.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

I don't think the new catalog (website) has anything to do with it? All that does is provide a link to our Overdrive page, which is the same as it's always been - Epub and PDF continue to be "lumped together" as one search, and Mobi another. One thing that has changed is that we now have one entry per title for multiple formats of the exact same book.

P. S. It seems we get our new books monthly - around the third week or so.

In the past I was trying to add Mobi only titles by using advanced search. Starting with "all formats" and then subtracting audio titles. But now they have added music, video and Disney also. It's too many formats to consider to get a more accurate figure. So my number is just Adobe. The mobi only titles are excluded. Their website doesn't have an ebook fiction and nonfiction search or simply an "all ebooks" choice like all the other libraries.

[Barty]

Cleveland is #1? Wow, I hope Lebron kept his card!

[blue_skies]

I remember reading a Places Rated book back in the mid 1990s, and Cleveland was the number one metro area in the US for greatest number of books read per capita. The library systems there are awesome.

I grew up in the Cleveland area, and still call it home for at least part of the year. When I'm away, the libraries are one of the things I miss most.

I'm not sure how the ebook numbers were tabulated, but the Cleveland metro area has a city system (Clevenet) and a county system (Cuyahoga). I added together the number of EPub, Mobi, and PDF listed in their collections.

Clevenet has 31,729 total ebooks in its collection currently, and 26,156 unique titles it seems. (Fiction = 18,055 and Non-fiction = 8,101)

The county system has 8,015 total ebooks, but it's divided up into different categories, so the number of unique titles is not as clear to me.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by blue_skies

The county system has 8,015 total ebooks, but it's divided up into different categories, so the number of unique titles is not as clear to me.

Cuyahoga County public library has 5742 unique titles.

[Fbone]

Updated the list for April.

Significant decrease in the number of titles added. I wonder if it's due to the Harper Collins situation.

[SeaBookGuy]

I go through all of ours in Seattle compulsively (surprise, surprise!) when they're added each month, around the 18th or so. The batch before last, we had 900 more, but that was a bit misleading as there had to be close to 100 Fodors guides among them. In addition, we get how-to stuff like sewing ideas, etc. They're far from all books one "reads" (as such).

I don't understand the Overdrive catalog "update" thing, but the Harper Collins-related article in the Seattle Times quoted our acquisitions staff as saying something like: "The policy is for forthcoming books, not the 'current' ones." Whatever that distinction may be exactly .....

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

"The policy is for forthcoming books, not the 'current' ones." Whatever that distinction may be exactly .....

That was covered in some of the other articles when the HC thing first came out. Basically it means that the pre-existing books which the library had already purchased (the stuff from last year, say), would not be retroactively subject to HC's attempted 26 loan rule for new purchases.

So if you want to help your library get their money's worth and thumb your nose at HC too, go check out some of their older HC books which still have unlimited loans, and send the librarians a message of boycott support, just so they don't get the wrong idea about any increased usage stats.

My library doesn't seem to have gotten any new HC stuff, for which I'm pleased. They've also gotten in more smaller publisher/Canadian-produced stuff, with which I am also pleased.

The disappearance of HC from the new eBooks listing seems to have led to slightly more diversity in the publisher offerings (or maybe it just looks that way because without all the HC stuff to sift through, I'm noticing the smaller publishers more).

My library has been getting fewer eBooks overall at slower intervals, though (aside from one of the Overdrive Advantage member branches, which seems to have been piling the "exclusives" on). Don't know whether it's due to HC or budget crunch issues.

[taming]

Red Deer, Alberta just waded into eBooks this month--they will not buy any HC books in ebook format.

[Tome Keeper]

Slightly off topic but does anyone know why Singapore library requires passport numbers for non-residents? What do they do with this information?

[carpetmojo]

Is there a link to Fbone's brilliant work please ? An up-dated one from the first ? I appreciate all the info is somewhere in this thread, as well as Libraries which accept "aliens " (!) but it would be great if there was a base list to have handy.
Sorry if I'm asking for more work on a very good idea.

Or perhaps the first list is now the latest ? Just spotted a date at the top.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

Is there a link to Fbone's brilliant work please ? An up-dated one from the first ? I appreciate all the info is somewhere in this thread, as well as Libraries which accept "aliens " (!) but it would be great if there was a base list to have handy.
Sorry if I'm asking for more work on a very good idea.

Or perhaps the first list is now the latest ? Just spotted a date at the top.

Yes, the first post is the updated one. I just re-edit it each month.

Around post #5 I list a few libraries that at the time accepted non-residents Overdrive access with fees. Singapore library is free at last check. Keep in mind this type of arrangement may not last since it seems to be against Overdrive's/publishers contractual agreements. I haven't updated this short list as it's an "at your own risk" undertaking.