It's Canadian library month, so LibraryData team members, Hannah Johnston and Monique Mongeon share some data about Canadian library circulation stats, genre trends, and more.
(Scroll down for a transcript of the conversation.)
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Transcript
Hannah Johnston: Hello and welcome to this month’s podcast. I’m Hannah and I’m here with my colleague, Monique. We both work on the LibraryData project here at BookNet and I’m part of the Loan Stars team, so we’re both very interested in the Canadian library market and what patrons are reading and borrowing across the country. If you weren’t already aware, October is Canadian Library month, and in recognition, we’d like to zoom into the public library market to see what’s changed since our 2019 study, Borrow, Buy, Read: Library Use and Book Buying in Canada. To do this, we’re going to look at the results of our quarterly Canadian Book Consumer surveys conducted among English-speaking adults (18 and older) from across Canada; as well as data from BookNet Canada’s LibraryData, the national library collection and circulation analysis tool.
A little bit more about LibraryData: LibraryData collects weekly circulation data from public libraries across Canada to help them, their suppliers, and publishers investigate trends, identify collection opportunities, and more. With LibraryData, libraries can examine their performance in context with retail sales and publishers can access a full view of their titles' performance in the Canadian market. And everyone can drive discovery through the production of overall ‘Popular Books’ lists; examine trends by genre, regions, authors; and more.
Monique Mongeon: Some of the questions we’ll address in this podcast are: How do Canadians make decisions on what to buy vs. what to borrow? How are borrowers finding out about the books they’re reading? What are borrowers' preferences, especially comparing print and digital format reading over time? You’ve asked, and we've answered.
At a glance, we found that from 2018 through mid-2020, the percentage of borrowers has lowered 1% each year; going from 28% in 2018 to 26% in the first half of 2020. In comparison, the percentage of buyers has slightly increased from 21% in 2018 to 24% in 2019 before falling slightly to 22% so far in 2020.
When we surveyed 6,244 Canadians about their borrowing and buying habits during 2019 we found that:
26% of Canadians borrowed at least one book;
22% bought at least one book (and 36% of those buyers also borrowed a book); and
8% both borrowed and bought books.
When deciding whether to borrow a book, 19% of readers who borrowed looked at the book description, 15% considered the subject or genre, and 14% considered whether their library had copies, the cover, reviews, and the author. Only 9% of borrowers compared the price in multiple places.
But what about reader-buyers? Popular decision-making was based on the book description (with 60% of readers considering this), the subject or genre, the cover, the author, and reviews were all important decision making factors for around 40% of reader-buyers. About a quarter of buyers compared the price and checked to see if their libraries had copies.
When we zoom out, the ranking is very similar for Canadians as a whole. Of note, we found that 21% of Canadians check to see if the library has the title they are looking for and 15% compared the price among retailers.
Hannah: In our surveying, we asked how Canadians got books in the last 12 months; whether they were bought, borrowed, gifted, downloaded, or other options. For example, we asked respondents to select if they borrowed a print book from a public library, bought an ebook, downloaded an audiobook, were gifted a print book, and more, for each method and book format.
When it comes to finding books at the public library, 42% of Canadians said they generally find what they’re looking for (online or in person), 48% said they sometimes do, and 10% said it’s difficult to find the titles they want.
The Canadian Book Consumer surveys in the first half of 2020 were fielded from March to early April and from July to early August. In these surveys, we asked Canadians what formats they checked out in the previous month. This is what we found when we combined both 2020 survey results:
59% of recent library patrons checked out print books
29% checked out ebooks
12% checked out audiobooks
If we look only at the formats that borrowers checked out in the previous month, we found that 64% borrowed print books, 35% borrowed ebooks, and 24% borrowed audiobooks. In 2019, ebook borrowing was slightly lower at 26% and audiobook borrowing was also lower at 17%. The increase in digital borrowing is most likely due to the closures of libraries and the restrictions put in place due to COVID-19.
What about visiting the public library in the previous month for borrowers and buyers? About two thirds of borrowers have visited a public library in the previous month (at about 63%), which is 13% more than buyers.
Both buyers and borrowers who have visited a public library in the previous month generally visited to find a specific book or author, pick up holds, discover a new book or author, or to browse. Borrowers did so at higher rates (and they were especially more likely to do activities like reading magazines, studying, and using the computers and printer).
Buyers who visited the library at least once in the last month bought an average of 3.4 books which is more than what buyers who hadn't visited the library bought in the last month (at 2.6 books). Buyers in general bought an average of three books a month.
Monique: Even though most public libraries across the country were closed for a large portion of January through August 2020, the library market reported more than 6.5 million loans of print books through LibraryData.
46% of loans were in the Juvenile Fiction & Young Adult categories (very popular!)
24% of loans were Adult Fiction
28% of loans were Adult Non-Fiction
Popular subjects during this period were mostly Fiction. Especially Juvenile Fiction subjects, they account for five of the top 10 most loaned subject categories.
For the first six months of 2020, the most popular print books in the Canadian library market were:
Blue Moon by Lee Child in the Fiction category (this was also the most popular book overall)
Guts by Raina Telgemeier in the Juvenile & Young Adult category
Becoming by Michelle Obama in the Non-Fiction category
The top-circulating Canadian title was The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
And, for a little current data: For the week ending October 11th, 2020, the titles with the highest number of holds, so the most anticipated titles, are:
All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
Too Much and Never Enough by Mary Trump
Untamed by Glennon Doyle
Hannah: And that’s all we have for now folks! If you’re a Canadian library staffer interested in learning more about LibraryData and how it can help your library to investigate trends, identify collection opportunities, and more, you can fill out our sign-up form at booknetcanada.ca/librarydata and we'll be in touch with further details.
Before we go, we’d like to take a moment to acknowledge that BookNet Canada staff, board, and partners operate upon the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee, Wendat, and Huron indigenous peoples, the original nations of this land. We endorse the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and support an ongoing shift from gatekeeping to space-making in the book industry. And we hope that our work, including this podcast, helps to create an environment that supports that shift. We'd also like to acknowledge the Government of Canada for their financial support through the Canada Book Fund. And of course, thanks to you for listening.
Find out what titles made it to the November 2024 Loan Stars Adult Canadian list.