The Demand for Fiction Books in Libraries

Special Report: A New Look at Research
By Marianne Lumeau, Clémence Thierry
English

This article studies the demand for fiction books in libraries, drawing on an original database provided by the Bureau des Bibliothèques of the City of Paris. This is the first study to characterize the demand for fiction books in public lending libraries and to examine the role of recommendation within and outside libraries. The results show that the distribution of borrowing is not highly concentrated in Parisian libraries, insofar as 20% of the titles borrowed account for just under 67% of total borrowings. Moreover, the distribution of the demand for titles in libraries does not seem to follow the statistical Pareto principle. In other words, users of Parisian public libraries borrow multiple titles. The study also shows the significant and positive role of recommendations made by librarians, on book borrowing. To a lesser extent, recommendations made outside libraries, particularly by experts, influence the number of times a title is borrowed. Finally, a strong link seems to exist between borrowing and purchasing books, as former bestsellers are borrowed extensively in Parisian libraries.

Go to the article on Cairn-int.info