Here is the summary of our ILL discussion for February.
Preview of 2021 ILL statistics
Total requests made: 56,381 (50,081 filled)
Books: 51,472
Videos: 3456
Audiobooks: 1277
Music CDs: 97
Articles: 62
Music Score: 17
The full statistics and top requested titles will be finalized and sent out later this month.
General Topic: Statistics, Patterns & Trends in ILL
A lot of libraries have noticed a rise in streaming service use, eBook/audiobook, videos, etc. While many libraries have seen a decrease in the circulation of their videos, there are a few that have seen an increase. Many libraries, especially those where seasonal residents moved to permanently during COVID have seen a rise in their circulation and patron count. This shows no sign of going back down, so these seasonal residents are likely permanent residents now. Trends have been changing within consortia as well, and this is having an impact on the internal policies for some libraries.
While it varies by library, some trends that have shown over the past year are:
-kids book lending is down (has increased in others, especially in areas with a lot of homeschooling families)
-Adult book lending is back to pre-COVID numbers
-DVD circulation is down (and some libraries noted that replacement DVDs are hard to find sometimes)
-Scanning material requests from out-of-state are up
There was a brief discussion about what a healthy fill rate for interlibrary loan requests would be. I didn’t have any data, but will look into this.
The meeting recording is available here: https://youtu.be/R5TZWjrj1c0.
The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, May 5, 2022 and will be 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm.