A look back at 5 years of Loan Stars

This year was Loan Stars’ fifth anniversary!

Loan Stars is the readers’ advisory tool that allows library staff across Canada to collaboratively select their favourite forthcoming titles. Using CataList, the online catalogue service and order management tool available for free to libraries, library staff can endorse the Fiction, Non-Fiction, Juvenile, and Young Adult titles they want to recommend to their patrons. The titles with the most recommendations become Loan Stars picks.

From the first Loan Stars Adult list in 2016 to the introduction of the Loan Stars Jr. list in 2019, Canadian library staffers have recommended a ton of great books — nearly 800 of them!

To celebrate we’re taking a look back at the last five years of Loan Stars Adult picks. Which Loan Stars titles did Canadian libraries really love?

Five years in view

Since 2016, we've released 62 Loan Stars Adult lists featuring 619 Loan Stars recommended titles from 671 contributors — authors, translators, illustrators, and the like.

Looking at all 619 Loan Stars Adult picks, 82% were Fiction and 18% were Non-Fiction titles. And out of 671 contributors, 32% were Canadian.

What else do we know about these Loan Stars titles?

Fiction picks

As mentioned earlier, 82% of Loan Stars Adult picks over the last five years were Fiction titles. These titles represented 79% of all Loan Stars contributors. And out of this 79%, 29% of them were Canadian.

Loan Stars Fiction titles are classified under 36 different subject categories under BISAC. The top three most popular Fiction subject categories from the last 5 years are:

• Fiction / Literary — 26%

• Fiction / Thrillers — 21%

• Fiction / Mystery & Detective — 11%

But how popular are these Loan Stars titles in Canadian library collections?

We’ve pulled data for the last five years from the Library Wholesalers aggregate in SalesData, our national sales tracking service for the Canadian English-language trade book market, to find out which Loan Stars picks were actually purchased by libraries and became the stars of library collections across the country.

Here are the results — the top ten most acquired Loan Stars Adult Fiction titles by Canadian libraries:

1. Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice 🍁 (October 2018 list)

2. A Better Man by Louise Penny 🍁 (August 2019 list)

3. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood 🍁 (September 2019 list)

4. The Break by Katherena Vermette 🍁 (September 2016 list)

5. A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult (October 2018 list)

6. The Push by Ashley Audrain 🍁 (January-February 2021 list)

7. Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien 🍁 (May 2016 list)

8. The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah (January-February 2021 list)

9. The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny 🍁 (August 2021 list)

10. The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles (January-February 2021 list)

What’s remarkable about this list is that 70% of the most popular titles for Canadian library collections are by Canadian contributors. And this trend continues when we look at Loan Stars Adult Non-Fiction titles.

Non-Fiction picks

Like we saw earlier, 18% of all Loan Stars Adult titles are Non-Fiction, accounting for 21% of all contributors. It’s worth noting that nearly half of these contributors were Canadian, at 47%.

Loan Stars Non-Fiction titles belong to 19 different BISAC subject categories, of which these are the most popular:

• Non-Fiction / Biography & Autobiography — 34%

• Non-Fiction / Cooking — 13%

• Non-Fiction / Comics & Graphic Novels — 12%

Which Non-Fiction Loan Stars Adult picks can you find the most in Canadian libraries?

These are the top ten Loan Stars Adult Non-Fiction titles purchased for Canadian library collections:

1. Extraordinary Canadians by Peter Mansbridge 🍁 with Mark Bulgutch 🍁 (November 2020 list)

2. If I Knew Then by Jann Arden 🍁 (October 2020 list)

3. Three Women by Lisa Taddeo (July 2019 list)

4. All Things Consoled by Elizabeth Hay 🍁 (September 2018 list)

5. Call Me Indian by Fred Sasakamoose 🍁 (May 2021 list)

6. Relax, Dammit! by Timothy Caulfield 🍁 (December 2020 list)

7. Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot 🍁 (March 2018 list)

8. A Mind Spread Out on The Ground by Alicia Elliott 🍁 (March 2019 list)

9. Rick Mercer Final Report by Rick Mercer 🍁 (November 2018 list)

10. Juliet’s Answer by Glenn Dixon 🍁 (January 2017 list)

Just like for the Adult Fiction picks, the vast majority of Non-Fiction titles on this list are by Canadian contributors — 90% of them. There’s nothing quite like a Canadian Loan Stars pick, recommended by Canadian library staff!

Happy anniversary, Loan Stars. And thank you Canadian library staffers for five years of awesome recommendations!