Australian Public Library Alliance releases elending report

8 July 2015 Books+Publishing

The Australian Public Library Alliance (APLA) has released a report on elending in Australian public libraries.

The report provides a snapshot of elending for January 2013, May 2014 and May 2015, based on survey responses from over 700 libraries.

Key findings of the report are:

Nearly all Australian public libraries (99%) now lend ebooks, up from 69% in 2013 and 97% in 2014
In 2015, ebooks made up 3.5% on average of a public library’s collection
In the majority of public libraries (76%), ebooks accounted for between 1% and 5% of loans; in 20% of public libraries they accounted for less than 1% of loans, and in 4% of public libraries they accounted for more than 5% of loans
Sixty percent of libraries used two or more ebook providers, up from 33% in 2013
Eighty-eight percent of libraries had ebooks in their catalogue but only 44% were able to offer ebooks direct from their catalogue
While the availability of Australian ebook content had improved between 2013 and 2015, the majority of libraries were still less than satisfied or not satisfied with the choice of bestsellers, popular authors and overall content.

The full report can be accessed here. APLA has also published a report covering the organisation’s achievements from 2010 to 2015.