eBook and Audiobook Provider OverDrive Publishes Year-End Stats, Ranks Most Popular Titles of 2009
It appears that library patrons are using reading more eBooks and listening to more audiobooks. They're also taking advantage of what their library has to offer. However, we continue to wonder how many people would use these services if they knew about them in the first place. Especially people who haven't been in a library in five or ten years. The same people who have made Borders, Barnes & Noble, and the Amazon.com database pseudo libraries.
From the Announcement:
Patrons at more than 10,000 OverDrive-powered libraries worldwide viewed 401 million download website pages and checked out 8.7 million eBook, audiobook, music and video titles, both of which are all-time highs.
[Snip]
Key statistics and milestones for OverDrive-powered libraries include:
+ 401 million website pages viewed by library patrons (69 percent growth over 2008) and 8.7 million digital titles checked out (63 percent increase over 2008)
+ 4 billion minutes of spoken word audio downloaded from library websites
+ 70 percent increase in audiobook checkouts over 2008, while eBook checkouts increased by 53 percent
+ 40 percent increase in new library users over 2008
+ The OverDrive digital catalog for libraries grew to 300,000 titles with the addition of 100,000 eBooks, 27,000 audiobooks, and 4,000 music and video titles.
[Snip]
Top 5 Titles in Each Adult Category
Most Downloaded Adult Fiction Audiobooks from the Library (2009)
1. The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown, Books on Tape
2. The Host, Stephenie Meyer, Books on Tape
3. The Associate, John Grisham, Books on Tape
4. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, Blackstone Audio, Inc.
5. The 8th Confession, James Patterson, Books on Tape Most Downloaded Adult Fiction eBooks from the Library (2009)
1. The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
2. Devil in Winter, Lisa Kleypas, HarperCollins
3. Again the Magic, Lisa Kleypas, HarperCollins
4. Because You're Mine, Lisa Kleypas, HarperCollins
5. Dreaming of You, Lisa Kleypas, HarperCollins
Most Downloaded Adult Nonfiction Audiobooks from the Library (2009)
1. 25 Things to Say to the Interviewer to Get the Job You Want, Dexter Hawk, Blackstone Audio
2. Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell, Books on Tape
3. Blink, Malcolm Gladwell, Books on Tape
4. Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson, Tantor Media
5. The 4-Hour Work Week, Timothy Ferriss, Blackstone Audio
Most Downloaded Adult Nonfiction eBooks from the Library (2009)
1. Blink, Malcolm Gladwell, Little, Brown and Company
2. The 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People, David Niven, HarperCollins
3. Marley & Me, John Grogan, HarperCollins
4. Dreams from My Father, Barack Obama, Crown Publishing Group
5. Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, Daniel G. Amen, M.D., Crown Publishing Group
A family of resources to help information workers be more effective, raise the value of information in their organisations and contribute to success. Read more »
Recently I have found myself cooing over visualisation maps (and heat maps) of health and well being resources. The content rich data is overlayed with mapping technologies, and some interesting themes and patterns are emerging.
A lot of the talk around social media in the last year has been around information overload. Social media has provided us with new and exciting ways to create content. But it has also meant learning new ways to manage and engage with social media tools. Are we teetering on the edge of an information overload precipice?
Information overload is a figment of your imagination. Or a failure of your filter. Or a symptom of your technological submissiveness. Depends on who you ask.
What if you had to sort through 3.5 million articles and social media posts a day and try to pull out the most relevant items for your organisation? What if you then had to cobble it all together into something readable for your top groups and executives in your organisation?
Alacra Compliance saves time by aggregating information from both free and fee-based sources and enabling users to conduct an accurate federated search across these sources (coined “simultaneous search” by Alacra).
FreePint Family
Quilting big data threads
The fallacy of information overload
Information overload: fact, fantasy or filter failure? 
