Another Reason Why Libraries Are Great

As we need another to prove that libraries are the best, BookRiot conducted a survey of the readers, asking “Where Did You Get the Last Book You Read?”. Over a two-week period and a survey pool of 1,953 readers, an overwhelming result of readers claimed they got their last book from their library. Take a look at their pie chart:

Having fun’s not hard when you’ve got a library card, and there’s no doubt Riot readers know that song–a whopping 923 of the 1,953 respondents got their last book at the library. The big A slides in a distant second with 261 respondents, followed by indie bookstores with 177.

127 readers said they got the last book they read from a chain bookstore (Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and Chapters were the most common), and an additional 25 readers specifically mentioned getting their books from a chain bookstore’s website or online platform (i.e. Nook). And speaking of digital platforms, 30 readers’ most recent reads came from an ebook subscription service like Scribd or Oyster.

After the big names came a whole bunch of smaller ones, as 116 readers reported getting their latest book through various online retail sources, and 111 from used bookstores.”

With everyone (more specifically publishers and writers) so afraid of Amazon having a stronghold on the book industry should really take a look at these numbers. I know that is only a small sample and doesn’t reflect the reading habits of the nation, but it is still comforting to see that people still rely on libraries. I mean, even if you combine the results for Amazon, Indie Bookstores, and Chain Bookstores, it still doesn’t match up against the results for libraries. More evidence that governments need to increase funding for public libraries.

Hooray for libraries!