By Marcia Sarnowski

The staff at WiLS shared information recently about the trends in circulation of OverDrive [eBook] materials:

OverDrive compiled some mid-year statistics on our Digital Library site and while we were expecting a big increase in use, we were still a little astounded: circ is up 69% over the previous 6 months!

Circulation:

July-December 2011: 310,422
January-June 2012: 525,953

For the overall life of the collection (established 2005), there have been 1,918,077 checkouts to date. We should get to 2,000,000 by the end of August or beginning of September.
We will probably see 1,000,000 checkouts for 2012 alone.
The collection is racing to keep up and has increased about 53% (copies versus titles) since the beginning of the year.

For the same period, here are the Winding Rivers Library System libraries’ eBook circulation totals:

July-December 2011:  12,608

January-June 2012:  24,917

This is an increase of 98%.  There is no doubt that eBooks are a popular format, and that people are finding and borrowing these titles from their libraries.  The Wisconsin Public Library Consortium [WPLC] eBook buying pool is a great collaborative effort, helping public libraries stretch their collection dollars while increasing access to these materials for their patrons.

Kudos to the selectors currently representing WRLS on the WPLC Selection Committee:  Jody Hanneman of the Ettrick Public Library and Mary Dunn of the La Crosse Public Library.