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By Katrina Miday, Library Consultant
It has been a huge year for digital media like eBooks and audiobooks. Forty-two libraries joined the Ohio eBook Project in 2011 alone, bringing the total of enrolled libraries to seventy-four. At the beginning of December, the total number of new patrons using the service was more than 42,000, just a little below the total of 49,000 patrons using the service in the past five years, from inception in 2005 to the end of 2010. With the increase in the number of libraries and patrons using the service, there also came an increase in circulation. Total circulation for 2010 was 209,985, which has more than doubled in 2011 with more than 485,000 checkouts in 2011 at the beginning of December. Each month sees approximately a 10% growth in checkouts from the previous month. At the beginning of 2010, the collection consisted of about 10,000 titles and 17,000 copies. Now at the end of the year, the collection has more than 10,000 titles in just the eBook format alone, with more than 18,000 titles and 30,000 copies of material total. One of the biggest announcements of the year was compatibility with Amazon Kindle eBook format and devices in September 2011. The Ohio eBook Project now offers eBooks in EPUB, PDF, and Kindle formats which work on many of the most popular eReader devices such as the Kindle, Barnes & Noble NOOK, Sony Reader and Kobo. While there has been a dramatic increase in eBook usage, usage of the other formats such as audiobooks, music and video are still being used as much as ever. The Ohio eBook Project offers more than 7,000 titles in audiobook format and audiobooks comprise more than 40% of the circulation. The Ohio eBook Project is still growing with additional libraries taking interest. In 2012 we hope to offer an even larger collection to a greater number of Ohio citizens. Download PDF to print this article. Follow the State Library on the Web
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