SINGAPORE – Digital library usage increased in the wake of the pandemic last year, but the shutdown during the breaker caused total loans to drop from 40.5 million in 2019 to 29.2 million.
The number of Singapore residents using the National Library Board (NLB) digital channels increased 46.5 percent from 2019. This emerges from the report for the reporting year on Wednesday (March 17th).
Digital loans increased by 26.2 percent, the cumulative downloads of the NLB mobile app by 36.5 percent and the use of their e-databases by 121 percent.
Bibliophiles quickly flocked back to the libraries after they reopened in July with secure administrative measures. Attendance at physical libraries increased 88.9 percent from July through December, while total loans increased 14.2 percent.
But the roughly nine million visitors to public libraries and other NLB institutions like the National Archives of Singapore last year were a fraction of the 26.7 million in 2019.
JK Rowling’s Harry Potter franchise continued its reign over library loans, ranking four of the top five most loaned physical books of the past year, led by Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets (1998).
E-book loans were crowned by former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama from 2018, while Teo You Yenn’s collection of essays from 2018, This Is What Inequality Looks, was crowned fifth, the only title of his own Cultivation that came in the top five category.
Travel books about Japan, some of which were mapped in 2019, were not on the list in a year of border closings and travel bans.
Last year, the NLB presented its first book dispenser at the Choa Chu Kang Public Library, which has been closed for renovations since June 2019 and is expected to reopen this year with digital services focusing on natural landscapes and biodiversity.
The donor, which residents can use to browse and borrow a curated selection of print and e-books and other materials, had 14,600 loans and renewals from July to January this year.
NLB General Manager Ng Cher Pong said: “We have introduced many digital offerings to facilitate learning, reading and qualification and to better serve our customers in the face of the disruption caused by the pandemic.”
