Annual Report—2019
“The share of Americans who report not reading any books in the past 12 months is higher today than it was nearly a decade ago. Today, 27% of adults say they have not read any books in the past year, up from 19% in 2011.”
INTRODUCTION
Despite the growth in ebooks and audiobooks over the past decade, there are reportedly fewer people reading books today, and fierce competition for their attention and discretionary spending. Coupled with fewer bookstores in fewer communities, it’s vitally important to understand what impact the 16,000+ public libraries across the United States have on developing readers, driving book discovery, and generating book sales.
Most people agree—transparent, actionable data about the public library’s role in the publishing ecosystem would be enormously helpful to everyone.
Publishers need to understand the complex dynamics of book discovery and sales, and specifically where public libraries fit in readers’ lives. Librarians need to understand the complex economics of publishing books across multiple formats and sales channels, and what drives readers’ interests and consumption preferences. And authors need to understand libraries’ direct and indirect contributions to book sales, and what role they play in their books finding new readers.
To facilitate this collective understanding, the Panorama Project advocates for purposeful cross-industry collaboration and transparency to more accurately evaluate and measure the role public libraries play in the book business. We also partner with industry associations, individual publishers, and public libraries to measure and analyze the impact of library collections, marketing, circulation, and events on the discovery and sales of specific titles and authors.
—Guy LeCharles Gonzalez, Project Lead
February 2020