It was a banner year in 2018 in digital reading as 43,000+ OverDrive library and school partners around the world circulated over 274 million ebook and audiobook checkouts. We’ve seen consistent record breaking circulation numbers every year for some time, but this number represents a 22% increase over 2017, the largest growth since 2015. Leading the growth of the digital library lending movement were 65 libraries who joined the Million Checkout Club in the calendar year.
The list, which you’ll find below, surpasses 2017’s record of 58 members with seven new members. A few other highlights include both Toronto Public Library and the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium surpassing five million (!!) checkouts. Another notable number comes from the National Library Board of Singapore who saw a growth of 113% over the previous year. Additionally, five libraries surpassed four million checkouts, and another four surpassing three million.
See the rest of the blog post, “65 Libraries Reach 1 million Digital Checkouts in 2018.”