“Soaring e-book Demand Strains Central Florida Library Budgets”

From the Orlando Sentinel:

The number of e-book checkouts in Orange County [Orange County Library System] peaked in January at 61,650, meaning that patrons borrowed 77 percent of that collection [nearly 80,000 items including audiobooks, e-magazines, etc.]. Pepo credits the lending spike to iPads, Kindles, Nooks and other electronic reading devices patrons received during the 2012 holiday season.
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Seminole County library-resources manager Denise Tate says patrons borrow more than half of the library’s 6,000-plus e-books every month. David Barnett, services manager at the Osceola County Library System, estimates the library’s e-book collection at nearly 4,000, and more than 75 percent of that collection is borrowed monthly.
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In 2009, a year after the Orange County Library System launched its e-book collection, the library’s budget was $5 million. About 8 percent of that budget was dedicated to the purchase of e-books, while 43 percent went toward print books. The 2012 budget was cut to $4.5 million, and the allocation to e-books doubled to 16 percent. The budget’s allowance toward print books dropped minimally to 41 percent.

Read the Complete Article
See Also: New Report Provides In-Depth Review of eBook Borrowing at Five U.S. Public Libraries (March 19, 2013)

Filed under: Funding, Libraries, News, Patrons and Users, Public Libraries