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Second Annual National Book Count in Canada

Some neat numbers from the Canadian national book count:

Here’s the PDF (3 pages) for your reading pleasure.

“More than 3.4 million books bought and loaned in typical January week in Canada. 10% of English book sales are now in digital format.

The numbers are in for the second annual National Book Count, sponsored by the National Reading Campaign (NRC), and for the first time e-book sales have been counted. E-book sales comprised 10% of all books sold in English Canada. Public libraries reported that 3 % of their circulation comprised digital formats. This finding puts English Canada near the very top of international estimates on e-reading. *

Book sales and public library circulations were counted for the week of January 23-29, 2012, as a snapshot of a typical reading week in Canada. A total of 3,405,687 books were counted as being sold or circulated for the week of January 23-29, 2012. That works out to more than five books sold or circulated every second in Canada.”

http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/10-of-english-book-sales-in-canada-are-now-in-digital-format/

“In a post in The Distant Librarian [http://distlib.blogs.com/distlib/2012/02/10-of-english-book-sales-in-canada-are-now-in-digital-format.html] which discusses the new Canadian National Reading Campaign report:

In a nutshell, the NRC now has data from a week in Jan 2011, and a week in Jan 2012, so they’re able to give us some information about book sales AND book circulations from Public Libraries in Canada, including both hard and e-copy. Some of the interesting numbers: E-book sales comprised 10% of all books sold in English Canada. Public libraries reported that 3% of their circulation comprised digital formats. 1,153,081 print books were sold by retailers including Indigo Books & Music, Amazon.ca and other national chains, as well as over 260 independent bookstores across the country. English language print book sales for the week increased 4% over 2011. 111,053 English language e-book sales were counted. As this is the first year counting ebook sales, no direct comparison can be made, but publishers report a “significant” increase from 2011. 2,141,553 print books were borrowed from 28 participating public library systems. 63,196 e-books were downloaded. Canadian libraries saw an 8% increase in print circulation and a 50% increase in digital circulation for an overall increase of 9% total circulation for libraries that participated in 2011 and 2012″

To access the entire press release go to: http://nationalreadingcampaign.ca/news/

Check the full press release for further details.

Stephen

 

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Posted on: February 24, 2012, 10:42 am Category: Uncategorized

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