Survey: Library Ebook Growth Slowing but Still Substantial

http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2014/10/ebooks/survey-library-ebook-growth-slowing-still-substantial/

“Ninety-five percent of public libraries currently offer ebooks to patrons, up from 72 percent in 2010, and 89 percent in both 2012 and 2013. However, money remains the biggest impediment for libraries looking to add ebooks or expand collections, according to Library Journal’s fifth annual Ebook Usage in U.S. Public Libraries report, sponsored by Freading.”

“The growth in demand for ebooks has cooled during the past four years, although as the report notes, this “is only because [ebooks] have become less of a novelty and more mainstream.” Survey respondents said they expected to see their library’s ebook circulation grow by 25 percent this fiscal year, compared with 108 percent growth in 2011, 67 percent in 2012, and 39 percent in 2013.

Collections have grown substantially during the past four years as well, and increased options and availability for patrons likely played a role in slowing the growth in demand. In 2010, the median number of ebooks offered by libraries was only 813, compared with a median of 10,484 titles in 2014—an increase of nearly 1,200 percent. Median circulation, meanwhile, increased five-fold during that period, from 2,600 in 2010, to 13,418 through the end of FY2013. Respondents from the largest library systems—those serving populations of 500,000 or more—said that their ebook holdings have increased even more substantially. Those collections, on average, now exceed 30,000 titles.”

“For the first time this year, tablets overtook dedicated e-readers as the device of choice for ebook readers. Eighty-four percent of respondents said that their library’s patrons were using tablets such as iPads, Kindle Fires, or Google Nexus tablets to check out ebooks, while 78 percent said that patrons were using dedicated e-reader devices such as NOOKs or Kindle Paperwhites. This compares to 66 percent who said patrons were using tablets for ebooks in 2012, and 90 percent who said patrons were using dedicated e-readers.”

“The fifth annual Ebook Usage in U.S. Public Libraries report consists of responses to a survey developed, hosted, and tabulated in-house by Library Journal, and fielded from April 4 to July 2, 2014. With data cleaned to eliminate duplicate responses from the same library, the final survey results consist of responses from 538 public libraries throughout the United States. The complete, 120-page report, featuring granular data on the topics listed above and more, is available for free in PDF format, courtesy of Freading, a Library Ideas company. A companion survey and report was created for U.S. school libraries by School Library Journal.”

Stephen