State Library Reports Surge in eBook Checkouts

The number of Tennesseans checking out library books electronically shot up in the last year.

Unless they live in one of the state’s four largest cities, most people who borrow a digital book or audiobook through their local library in Tennessee are actually using a system run by the state.

In the fiscal year that ended last month, that state program saw more than 700-thousand digital downloads. That’s a 77 percent increase over the previous year. Those figures include audiobooks, but most were for books that people could read on their computer, phone or an eReader, like a Kindle.

The boom in borrowing comes as libraries nationwide are complaining of limited access to digital books. Most major publishers place restrictions on which ebooks libraries can purchase or how many times they can be checked out, if they sell ebooks to libraries at all.