If you have told 12-year-old, math-class hating me that one of my favorite parts of my dream job would be statistics, I would have told you to “talk to the hand” (yes, I was 12 in 1994.) But seriously, digging deep into how our patrons use the library, and using that info to build the best-possible library, is not only fascinating to me, it’s a joy!
Each month, I gather usage statistics on everything from the number of video games that have been checked out to how many patrons come into the library on Tuesdays to how many people looked at our website. At the end of each fiscal year, I compile all these stats to see just how our patrons are using the library, where we might be lacking, and how we should allocate resources. In this blog, I’m going to look at one category of usage stats: books.
It might surprise you to learn, in these digital times, that book checkouts are still the biggest piece of our business. Our patrons checked almost 35,000 physical books last year: 68% of our total circulation and 5% more than the year before. While e-book checkouts grew 15% from two years ago (11,160 checkouts in FY 23/24* compared to 9,734 in FY 22/23), they still lag far behind physical item checkouts.
So, we know our patrons love holding a book in their hands. But which books? Of the roughly 4 million books published last year in the US, which did our patrons eagerly take home? Let’s dig a little deeper.
Our adult patrons like fiction the most. 48% of all adult checkouts last year were fiction books. Looking at the break-down by genre, our patrons love a good whodunit. Mystery, suspense, and thriller novels accounted for 40% of all fiction checked out and that number has held steady for as long as we’ve tracked it. (For those curious, our second place goes to romance at 20% and third to general fiction at 15%). Now that we know what’s popular, what are the trends? What about the other 25% of fiction checkouts?
Horror only accounted for 2% of our fiction checkouts last year, but that number has been increasing each year since we’ve started tracking, while Western readership has decreased. Knowing what our patrons are checking out helps us to decide which books to buy (our budget does not allow for all 4 million new titles).
What about kids? Our young patrons love graphic novels and picture books. Of the 17,000 books that kids checked out last year, 1,875 were graphic novels and 6,302 were picture books: 48% of all juvenile circulation! Our very littlest patrons love board books, checking out 987 last year. Not too shabby when we only have 301 board books in the collection.
When I look at our circulation figures, I also look at “turnover rate.” This is the ratio of how many items we have in the collection to how many times those items get checked out. Ideally, we’ll have a turnover rate of at least 1. That means everything in the collection was checked out at least once. Turnover under 1 means we have more items in that collection than our patrons need. Over 1 means our patrons want more! Board books had our best book turnover rate of 3.27. Looks like we need to go shopping!
I hope you enjoyed this peek behind the curtain! Next time, we’ll talk audio-visual.
*Our “year” is a fiscal year (FY) that runs July 1-June 30. Don’t ask me why.
To request any of the books listed above, head over to Aspen and place a hold!
Until Next Time Library Friends!
The Vespasian Warner Library is located at 310 N. Quincy St in Clinton, IL 61727
Contact us by phone, 217-935-5174, by email library@vwarner.org, or drop in and say hello!
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