CHARLOTTE — Libraries across the Charlotte area are seeing record demand, but the surge in popularity is creating long waitlists for books, especially digital titles that can cost libraries several times more than consumers pay.
“We love to read,” mother Sarah Trimble said, ”we read every day, every night”
Sarah Trimble and her children are regulars at the York County Library.
“We try to come once a week,” Trimble said, “We come for books. I typically reserve a book, and so I get my book, and she loves to get books, and he loves to get books.”
She’s starting early, turning her little ones into library lovers, and they’re far from alone.
Libraries across our area are seeing sizeable growth, especially in areas where the population is booming.
Beyond the plethora of library services, physical, audio, and e-books are still popular, with long wait lists that Donna Andrews says can take several months to get through.
“Our biggest hold item in Libby is actually an e-audio book with 195 holds,” Andrews said, “and believe it or not, we actually have 20 copies of that particular audio book”
Andrews was talking about ‘The Calamity Club,’ a popular title these days. Neighbors over in Union County are in the same boat.
“We’re seeing record numbers for our program attendance,” Nina Chaffin said, “our checkouts are consistently increasing year over year, and on the plus side, so is our funding.”
The Union County Library is seeing similar wait lists for popular books, especially digital ones, according to Chaffin.
“You’ll see hundreds of people waiting for a popular title,” Chaffin said.
Trying to cut the wait can be costly.
“The price of a digital copy is much higher for a public library versus a regular consumer,” Chaffin said, “So, whereas you would pay a regular $15 fee for an ebook, we’re going to spend about $85 for the same title. So, we can’t purchase as many copies to create the waitlist, to make it go down, just due to funding restrictions.”
Both library leaders told Channel 9’s Elsa Gillis they have to repurchase the digital copies after a certain amount of time, which is usually two years.
The libraries don’t own the digital content; they are just licensing it for a period of time.
“I think collectively, public libraries are trying to figure out ways to work together to see if there are other avenues that we can do to try to get a better pricing,” Chaffin said.
“We’ve been projected to be done and over with for years and years, and we just keep reinventing ourselves,” Andrews said.
If you’re interested in getting your own library card, you can visit the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library website.
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