Membership and circulation on the rise
Vancouver Sun: 2008 July 22
Business is booming at Canada’s major public libraries, which credit everything from the high price of buying books to social networking, vampires and a new social acceptance for frothy bestsellers.
“People say libraries are dying because of the Internet,” said Beth Barlow, chief librarian at Surrey Public Library.
“But we’re finding a lot of growth in people who get library cards, and a continual growth in the circulation of our materials.”
Surrey’s growth in library membership has seen a 15-percent jump in the number of people getting new library cards from 2005 to 2007.
Toronto boasts the busiest public library system per capita in the world, with 1.2 million cardholders and 28.9 million items in 40 languages circulating each year.
In Edmonton, 385 people are on the waiting list for Fearless Fourteen, the newest offering from romance-turned-crime writer Janet Evanovich. Halifax public libraries have 240 readers on a waiting list for Kathy Reichs’ newest forensic mystery, which won’t even be published until the end of the summer.
In Surrey, Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn, a vampire novel written for young adults that is still on order, has 220 members on its waiting list.
The story is a little different in Vancouver, where libraries are still hurting from the threemonth-long civic workers’ strike last summer.
While 2006 saw 10 million items circulated across the system, the strike saw many readers defect to suburban branches, particularly Burnaby, said Corinne Durston, director of youth services and community relations for the Vancouver Public Library.
However, Vancouver library administrators are looking to the future: a new library is planned in a community centre complex at One Kingsway in January, the Kensington branch will be moving to the King Edward Village complex in September, and a Hillcrest branch is scheduled to open within two years near in the Riley Park area.
The VPL sees a foot-traffic count of about seven million people a year and the system’s annual budget of $4.5 million “stretches across lots of interests,” said Durston.
“We’re finding there’s a lot of attention on political books related to the U.S. election. Cherie Blair’s autobiography and books about the Clintons are hugely popular,” she added.
Kaiser said books used to be viewed as a highbrow literary pursuit that obliged readers to seek out hidden gems and choke down ponderous classics even if they didn’t enjoy them.
“People want to read what Oprah recommends, they want to read what [is] on bestseller lists, they want to read what TV shows and celebrities promote,” he said.
Barlow sees the same trend in Surrey.
“I would say that libraries are trying to reach everyone in our population in a different way. While an academic might find a good literary novel to read, they might also enjoy the latest murder mystery.”
The importance of showing off a library’s wares has started to influence renovations and placed more emphasis on space for promotion and special displays, said Susan Caron, acting director of collections management for the Toronto Public Library.
“The ideal library would look like a bookstore because that is the best way to merchandise books,” Caron said.
Olivia Anderson, branch head of the Bruce Hutchison and Central Saanich branch libraries in Victoria believes the ups and downs of book prices and the Canadian dollar affect library circulation, but Caron thinks people are either buyers or borrowers.
“Some people only buy books, some people only use the library and then there’s that middle ground where depending on what they’re buying or what they’re reading or how fast they want it, they’ll buy them,” she said.
In Surrey, library membership growth is up with the population, “but it does have a lot to do with the economy,” said Barlow.
“When people aren’t doing as well [financially], they tend to think, ‘ There’s a library, I don’t have to buy that CD. Maybe I’ll just listen to it first.’ Or they say, ‘We can’t go to a show tonight, but the library has some DVDs.’”
