That’s not necessarily
the case for the general reading public, according to the Big Data report released at the London Book Fair by OverDrive. In the
study, the distributor of e-books, digital audiobooks, music, and video found
that more than five million visitors browsed its catalogs in libraries around
the world. The catalogs logged more than 408,000 visits each day, with viewers
looking at 11.6 pages for an average of nine minutes, 34 seconds.
According to the study,
nighttime is the right time for browsing, with the 8-9 p.m. window the most
popular hour, followed by the 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. windows. Nearly half of all
e-book readers (49%) did their browsing on Windows computers. Apple iOS
devices, such as iPhones and iPads, were a strong second at 28% of users, with
Android devices used by just 5% of visitors.
“This report gives
a sample overview of the type of data we’re collecting, and we’ll customize
future reports to meet the individual needs of our library and publisher
partners,” said Michael Lovett, an OverDrive spokesperson.
