Wednesday, 27th June 2012

Libraries, patrons, and e-books

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project

From Summary of findings:

Some 12% of Americans ages 16 and older who read e-books say they have borrowed an e-book from a library in the past year.

Most e-book borrowers say libraries are very important to them and their families and they are heavy readers in all formats, including books they bought and books lent to them. E-book borrowers say they read an average (the mean number) of 29 books in the past year, compared with 23 books for readers who do not borrow e-books from a library. Perhaps more striking, the median (midpoint) figures for books reportedly read are 20 in the past year by e-book borrowers and 12 by non-borrowers.

But most in the broader public, not just e-book readers, are generally not aware they can borrow e-books from libraries. We asked all those ages 16 and older if they know whether they can borrow e-books from their library and 62% said they did not know if their library offered that service. Some 22% say they know that their library does lend out e-books, and 14% say they know their library does not lend out e-books.

These findings are striking because more than three-quarters of the nation’s public libraries lend e-books.

(Hat Tip: Michelle Manafy)

+ Complete Report(PDF; 1.5 MB)

+ Summary of findings

Category:

• Education (DocuTicker)
• Industries (DocuTicker)
• Internet (DocuTicker)
• Media and entertainment (DocuTicker)
• Social and cultural issues (DocuTicker)
• Technology (DocuTicker)
• Telecommunications (DocuTicker)
• North America (DocuTicker)

Source:

• Pew Internet & American Life Project

Views: 1731

By Adrian Janes

Having begun his career in academic libraries, Adrian Janes is currently an Information Services Librarian with the London Borough of Havering.

In this role, he has particular responsibility for information from both the UK Government and the European Union. He wrote a detailed report on sources for the latter which was published by Free Pint Ltd. in 2007. He is also involved in training and publicising online reference resources and is a regular contributor to DocuTicker.

Adrian can be reached at adrian.janes@freepint.com

More articles by Adrian Janes »

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