Pew study: library patrons largely unaware of e-book offerings
(Read article summary)According to a new study by the Pew Research Center, 62 percent of respondents didn't know whether or not their local library had e-books.
Many patrons are unaware that their libraries offer e-books, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center.
The study reported that 62 percent of respondents didn’t know whether e-books were available at their local library. The study also revealed that only 12 percent of respondents living in the US who were older than 16 had borrowed one or more e-books from a library within the last year.
According to the report, 56 percent of those who responded said they’d tried to borrow an e-book at their library and it hadn’t been available, while 46 percent said that if given a device with the e-book they wanted already on it, they would be very or somewhat likely to borrow the device from the library.
Those who borrow e-books from libraries had read 29 books this year, the survey said, compared to 23 books for those who do not.
“Clearly there is an opportunity here for us to step up our outreach and increase public awareness," American Library Association president Molly Raphael told Publishers Weekly on the subject of patrons not knowing about e-book offerings. "Of course, awareness is not enough. Libraries cannot lend what they cannot obtain.”
