N.L. libraries see digital loans skyrocket, but costs aren't coming down

Digital library use shot up 70 per cent during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Newfoundland and Labrador, and executive director Andrew Hunt expects that engagement to stay high.

According to a briefing note prepared for government officials, released via an access-to-information request earlier this month, N.L. Public Libraries saw a jump in clients using Libby, the library system that lets patrons access ebooks and audiobooks, in recent years.

In 2018-19 checkouts totalled 286,301. In 2020-2021, that rose 70 per cent, to 485,034 checkouts — but funding, Hunt points out, has remained static.

"We were getting more and more inquiries coming from the public, wondering how they could access library materials during that time," Hunt told CBC News.

There were also 5,662 new users during this period too, said Hunt.

"The larger surprise — if I may say — was that the usage has not stopped.… It appears that patrons, once they started to use the digital library, they continue to do so."

In contrast, the surge in people accessing the library comes after a decade of frozen funding for the public library system.

In 2011-12, the provincial government gave the library system $1.2 million for library materials.

But the next year, government reduced that amount by 21 per cent, to $950,000. The budget has remained the same since then.

According to the briefing note, in that decade since funding was reduced and then frozen, the cost of books has gone up by about 40 per cent.

It has resulted in the library buying far fewer books: from around 50,000 a decade ago to about 30,000 today.

"Very [few] items have actually gotten cheaper in the past 10 years," said Hunt. "You have to evaluate the how you spend your money."

When looking at the future for library funding, he said he would be happy to see the government reinstate its 2012-13 funding levels.

"We are always hopeful that at some point, that additional funding will be available to us."

Putting books on shelves

Even with digital library use surging, there are some limitations when it comes to the digital library, Hunt pointed out.

"If you buy the latest Stephen King novel in a physical copy, it's in the library and it's there and can circulate many, many times," he said.

But an ebook sometimes has a limited circulation run, meaning once a book is loaned out 30 times, the library has to rebuy the book, something it doesn't have to do with the physical copy on the shelf.

"So in doing this, we have to manage our collections very, very carefully. And unfortunately, at times it causes longer wait runs because we don't have the number of copies we would prefer to have," he said.

As demand for one medium wanes, though, they can allocate those resources to the digital library, such as magazines.

Hunt stressed their main business is still the physical circulation of books.

"Last year we still did 1.3 million circulations of physical books inside the system. So the vast majority of our resources still does go to physical media," he said.

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