The Girl on the Train, the best-selling thriller by Paula Hawkins, which is now also a film starring Emily Blunt, is set to top the 2016 lending charts at North Yorkshire libraries for the number of times it was borrowed in both physical and e-book editions.
Hard copies of the novel were borrowed 1,735 times from libraries across the county up to the end of November, 250 times more than the second-placed title, Make Me, the 20th Jack Reacher story by author Lee Child. The e-book version of The Girl on the Train was borrowed 131 times, again beating Make Me into second place with 118.
Overall, during the year to date, almost 2,180,000 physical books have been borrowed from North Yorkshire libraries along with almost 57,500 e-books.
County Councillor Chris Metcalfe, Executive Member for Library and Information Services, said: “Libraries these days do much more than simply offer books as they embrace their role as hubs for the communities they serve, but it is encouraging to see so many people still enjoying traditional library services.”
While books on shelves are still a mainstay of libraries, North Yorkshire is constantly enhancing its digital service. There are now more than 10,000 e-book titles – fiction, non-fiction and children’s books – to borrow online. In addition, there are almost 4,000 digital audiobooks available together with extensive online reference works and family history resources. Customers can search for books, reserve them and renew them online.
Cllr Metcalfe said: “Many people are choosing to borrow e-books to suit their circumstances and e-books may even be attracting a new audience. We’re seeing growing numbers of people borrowing online. North Yorkshire’s libraries are responding to changing reader behaviour by developing their digital reading service and readers are taking advantage of digital borrowing being available any time of the day or night.
“That flexibility may be particularly popular over the Christmas break when library buildings will be closed, but customers can still borrow from a wide selection of titles and use online reference material.”
Libraries will close at lunchtime on Saturday, 24 December, for the Christmas and New Year period and will reopen on Tuesday, 3 January.
More information about all library services, including e-books, can be found at www.northyorks.gov.uk/libraries.