Toronto Public Library hits milestone with 20 million ebooks borrowed

[astrangerhere]

The story:

The Toronto Public Library has become the first library in the world to lend more than 20 million ebooks, the library announced this week.

“Our customers are very engaged with the digital book collection,” said Maria Cipriano, the library’s senior collections specialist responsible for ebooks. “As we find out any time it goes down, it becomes an emergency.”

The library, which announced the milestone Wednesday, started its first digital collection in 2007, which included books such as Astrology for Dummies, a book on Joan of Arc, and 17 travel guides.

By 2017, the collection included more than 170,000 titles, which were borrowed more than 4.6 million times that year alone.

Cipriano shared a list of the 20 most popular ebooks borrowed. The Girl on the Train comes in at No. 1, borrowed 19,156 times. Numbers two to five are The Goldfinch (borrowed 13,876 times), Gone Girl (borrowed 12,633 times), The Cuckoo’s Calling (borrowed 10,237 times), and You Are a Badass (borrowed 9,916 times).

“I see these trends ... come and gone, but you know we have these enduring classics and modern classics that will go out forever,” Cipriano said. “Like the modern classic, The Goldfinch. It’s gone out a tremendous number of times, and any time I feature it on our landing page, it goes out again. Some of these books are going to be around for a long time.”

[PeterT]

Woot!! I borrow a lot from them but it's just a drop in the bucket.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

The story:

Good Job!

[pwalker8]

Astrology for Dummies? Ah, are there any Astrology buffs on this board before I start making snarky comments? I wouldn't want to offend anyone. I do have the Astronomy for Dummies ebook.

[Ricky D'Angelo]

On the downside, the library is considering cutting back on staff due to loss of late fee revenues from people turning in overdue books. I know I turned in an overdue book the other day at my local public library. Think the late fee is going to set be back maybe 10 or 20 cents.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by Ricky D'Angelo

On the downside, the library is considering cutting back on staff due to loss of late fee revenues from people turning in overdue books. I know I turned in an overdue book the other day at my local public library. Think the late fee is going to set be back maybe 10 or 20 cents.

That's disappointing. I know lots of libraries are trying to find new ways to remove punitive charges, but if it is that much a revenue stream, maybe they shouldn't. My own library has a policy of $.25 per day up to $5.00 per item. But if you hit a total of $25.00 in fines, they will suspend your right to check things out "until you come and talk to them." This often results in payment plans or allowing kids to read a certain number of hours to pay back the library. The only catch is that they have to do the reading in the library.

[4691mls]

Of course there are no late returns for ebooks and therefore no late fees. I suppose libraries are having to come up with alternative ways to bring in money.

[j.p.s]

Libraries should not use late fees for recurring expenses. Ideally, no item would ever be overdue.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

I've borrowed quite a few books from the Toronto Overdrive library. I had no idea that they were pioneers in this regard. Or maybe Torontonians just love their ebooks? I had no idea that overdue fines were a significant portion of their budget. I thought it was just to keep people from hanging onto books for too long.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

This page is kind of fun to watch. You can see the numbers go up by the second. Just like the US national debt (but fortunately not as fast).

https://insights.overdrive.com/dashb...bc0812ddf6e94f

[rxmom03]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Libraries should not use late fees for recurring expenses. Ideally, no item would ever be overdue.

My library will automatically recheck anything out at least once for you, as long as someone else does not have it on a wait list.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Libraries should not use late fees for recurring expenses. Ideally, no item would ever be overdue.

Sadly, we don't live in an ideal world and statistics predict that a certain percentage of books will not be returned within the loan period.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Libraries should not use late fees for recurring expenses. Ideally, no item would ever be overdue.

It's one of the defects of ebook borrowing from both sides. With pbooks if you haven't finished it by the time it comes due you can make the calculation of the cost to keep it out for how many days it will take you to finish it. Overdue fines can be a useful tool for getting a book done. There may be no fees because no overdue ebooks, but the cost to the reader can be getting back on the end of a six-month waiting list.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by issybird

There may be no fees because no overdue ebooks, but the cost to the reader can be getting back on the end of a six-month waiting list.

Or delaying the removing from the ebook reader by using airplane mode.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Or delaying the removing from the ebook reader by using airplane mode.

That didn't work with my old X50 Sonys; I've not tried it with Kobo.

(What did work with the Sonys was setting back the internal clock before the book expired, after which it became inaccessible.)