Library users are checking out more audiobooks, digital magazines and comic books than ever before, according to new research by library reading app Libby.
UK public library patrons checked out 171% more audiobooks in January 2023 than in January 2020, and that number continues to rise with titles such as the record breaking Spare (Penguin Random House Audio) by Prince Harry, Libby said.
UK public library users’ digital magazine checkouts have also grown 5,476% from February 2020 to February 2023. Comic books and graphic novels have grown 370% from January 2020 to January 2023.
In total digital circulation including e-books and digital audiobooks, UK public libraries have seen a 144% increase in checkouts from 2018 to 2023, and a 71% increase in checkouts from 2020 to 2023 alone.
Nick Forster, regional manager at OverDrive, said: “We’ve seen an incredible increase in readership in public libraries across the board over the past three years, especially within the digital magazine and comic book space. As demand for written content across genres has increased for digital versions of magazines, audiobooks, celebrity biographies and comic books, we’ve been able to provide additional resources with libraries to meet that need. We expect big upcoming summer releases to continue pushing these readership numbers even higher.”