Digital content distributor OverDrive will debut the first of a series of “Big Data” reports at the London Book Fair, running April 16-18. The report, which will be shared with participating libraries and publishers, analyses data from the company’s network of 18,000 public and school libraries. It includes information about eBook and digital audiobook title circulation, book demand, and holds, as well as web traffic and general demographics.
OverDrive’s library data reports will include metrics for titles, authors, series and promotional campaigns targeting use of the materials in the OverDrive-hosted catalogs. (An advisory panel which includes librarians makes sure the reports comply with privacy policies and don’t include any identifying user information.)
The data “confirms the benefits that books and authors in library channels enjoy in terms of exposure and discovery to a highly desirable audience,” said Alexis Wiles, OverDrive Manager of Publisher Relations.
The data will give a much more granular take on the trends already demonstrated by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, Bowker Market Research’s Global eBook Monitor, and LJ’s own Patron Profiles, all of which confirm the rapid rate of ebook adoption and/or the devoted reading habits of the ebook reading user.
The reports, like OverDrive’s Want It Now initiative, are part of the company’s continuing efforts to create what it calls a “win-win-win relationship between libraries, publishers and readers.”
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