Toronto Leads the Way in Digital Reading

[PeterT]

http://torontopubliclibrary.typepad....-reading-.html

Digital circulation tops three million, putting Toronto in first place among library systems.

Toronto is a city of readers, and digital library lending is on the rise. In 2016, Toronto Public Library (TPL) cardholders borrowed more than three million digital books, putting us in first place among library systems worldwide. This is a 20% jump from overall 2015 digital lending rates, and a 40% increase in eaudiobook borrowing alone.

“I am thrilled residents have made Toronto the top library system internationally for use of ebooks and e-audiobooks! It’s so interesting to see how our city’s reading patterns are evolving over time as demand for ebooks and e-audiobooks grows year over year, and kudos to our librarians who select and highlight titles that help meet that demand.” said Vickery Bowles, City Librarian.

[tubemonkey]

Two of my libraries came in at #2 (King County) and #8 (Seattle).

[GeoffR]

It looks like Auckland (New Zealand) is the only one outside of Canada and US to make the list. I wonder why no UK libraries?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

It looks like Auckland (New Zealand) is the only one outside of Canada and US to make the list. I wonder why no UK libraries?

All the stories I've seen out of the UK are that their libraries are getting their budgets cut something fierce. Not sure quite why. I do recall one politician suggested closing all libraries and giving everybody a Kindle Unlimited subscription.

In the US, libraries have spent decades serving as community information centers and not just pbook repositories so the shift from dead tree pulp to digital is just another tweak to their operations. Money is short but they adapt.

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Two of my libraries came in at #2 (King County) and #8 (Seattle).

All four of mine are on the list! And the smallest (with the longest wait lists) is higher than the other three with larger portfolios (or more copies of each book).

• Ohio Digital Library (#5)
• Digital Downloads Collaberation (used to be MidOhio Libraries Digital Initiative that had an unfortunate acronym of MOLDI) (#10)
• Cuyahoga County Public Library (#14)
• CLEVNET (#38)

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

All four of mine are on the list! And the smallest (with the longest wait lists) is higher than the other three with larger portfolios (or more copies of each book).

• Ohio Digital Library (#5)
• Digital Downloads Collaberation (used to be MidOhio Libraries Digital Initiative that had an unfortunate acronym of MOLDI) (#10)
• Cuyahoga County Public Library (#14)
• CLEVNET (#38)

I like how Ohio has gone the consortia route for many of their libraries. Washington still prefers the standalone system.

I belong to one small library system because I can frequently get books quicker there than I can with the larger ones.

[treadlightly]

My two libraries made the list, Ottawa Public Library and the Ontario Library Service. Those two along with Toronto cover most of Ontario's population of 13 million and provide a combined 6 million downloads.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

All four of mine are on the list! And the smallest (with the longest wait lists) is higher than the other three with larger portfolios (or more copies of each book).

• Ohio Digital Library (#5)
• Digital Downloads Collaberation (used to be MidOhio Libraries Digital Initiative that had an unfortunate acronym of MOLDI) (#10)
• Cuyahoga County Public Library (#14)
• CLEVNET (#38)

Considering Overdrive started in Cleveland and the Cuyahoga County Public Library was one of the first to sign up they'd better be up there.

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I like how Ohio has gone the consortia route for many of their libraries. Washington still prefers the standalone system.

I go both ways with this. The Ohio Digital Library used to be two smaller (consortium) libraries. When they combined, the lines became ridiculous. I tend to sign on later at night (work 11-8 or 9 most days), so even if I check for books that were added the morning before, I might find there are already 70+ people in line to read the book! And this system doesn't buy extra copies when the lines are long...maybe one more copy, but otherwise no.

Cuyahoga County, being a standalone, has ebooks that none of the other three do. I don't know if it's still true, but I know at least at one time, at least one of the big agency publishers wouldn't allow their books to be in consortium libraries, only standalones.

And whoever their buyer is pre-orders many books like 6 months in advance! Luckily, they allow 75 holds, so you can tie up some of your list with long-term holds and still be able to get some books sooner. I've had 50+ books on hold at times, with most of the list being long-term holds.

CLEVNET allows 999 holds! I don't think I've ever had it up to more than 25. They tend to buy multiple copies of books, so I don't tend to have to wait too long (or even at all). Any Ohioans out there speak Russian? CLEVNET buys quite a few Russian-language ebooks (can't tell you the genres much, although the last bit seemed to be mostly romance and some classics - e.g., Nora Roberts [Нора Робертс] and Jack London [Джек Лондон]. ) My Russian is way too rusty to get beyond recognizing author names and the occasional word.

[Froide]

Some of my library systems are on OverDrive's list:

2 million or more digital books circulated
• New York Public Library (NY) +28% (standalone library)

1 million or more digital books circulated
• The Free Library of Philadelphia (PA) +12% (standalone library)
• Brooklyn Public Library (NY) +21% (standalone library)

I'm curious about the rankings and absolute numbers of digital library checkouts, for the same period, via:
• Axis360
• Cloud Library
• Axis360+Cloud Library+OverDrive combined

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

I tend to sign on later at night (work 11-8 or 9 most days), so even if I check for books that were added the morning before, I might find there are already 70+ people in line to read the book!

This may not be relevant in your case but...

Many OverDrive libraries allow patrons to make recommendations for books to be acquired. Making a recommendation puts you on the hold list if that book is acquired by the library later.

So for popular authors it is best to recommend a book as soon as it is added to OverDrive, probably well before your specific library orders it.

[jhowell]

Digital circulation tops three million, putting Toronto in first place among library systems.

Toronto's press release seems to assume that OverDrive is the only e-book lending provider.

Originally Posted by Froide

I'm curious about the rankings and absolute numbers of digital library checkouts, for the same period, via:
• Axis360
• Cloud Library
• Axis360+Cloud Library+OverDrive combined

I too would like to hear about total digital checkouts across all providers.

Besides Axis 360 and Cloud Library I also use Freading and Hoopla. Many libraries have these providers in addition to the larger ones and they have grown to have pretty good collections of books that are less well covered by the larger library providers. For example Hoopla has many comics and Freading has the Open Road Media catalog. Both of these services have no waiting lists for borrowing.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by jhowell

This may not be relevant in your case but...

Many OverDrive libraries allow patrons to make recommendations for books to be acquired. Making a recommendation puts you on the hold list if that book is acquired by the library later.

So for popular authors it is best to recommend a book as soon as it is added to OverDrive, probably well before your specific library orders it.

My local library's ebook page allows suggestions to be made. I like that. And of course Amazon allows its customers to click that they'd like to read a given book on Kindle which also adds the chance that if a book isn't already available as an ebook it might become so sooner because you and X many others have requested it from them.

[tdonline]

Originally Posted by jhowell

This may not be relevant in your case but...

Many OverDrive libraries allow patrons to make recommendations for books to be acquired. Making a recommendation puts you on the hold list if that book is acquired by the library later.

So for popular authors it is best to recommend a book as soon as it is added to OverDrive, probably well before your specific library orders it.

I've made a handful of recommendations and have yet to see one of them come through. Wonder if libraries actually pay any attention to this feature? Or they set a metric for recommendations and purchases are made once the number has been met?

[John F]

Originally Posted by tdonline

I've made a handful of recommendations and have yet to see one of them come through. Wonder if libraries actually pay any attention to this feature? Or they set a metric for recommendations and purchases are made once the number has been met?

Have you tried emailing?

If it is a popular title, I'll just use recommend. If it is something less popular, I'll recommend and email a request.