E-book Tops Gyeonggi Province Lending Ranking Last Year; Rachel Carson's 'Silent Spring' Leads

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hun] Throughout 2020, the most borrowed book by users of the Gyeonggi Province Cyber Library was Rachel Carson's 'Silent Spring' (Ecolivre), a classic in the ecology and environment field, which ranked first with 559 checkouts.

On the 4th, the Gyeonggi Province Cyber Library announced the results of its analysis of 1.03 million e-book lending records from last year. Second place went to Kwon Gi-heon's 'The Power of Questioning' (Smartbooks, 548 checkouts), and third place was Deborah Ellis's 'Taxi Boy' (Cheonkaeeui Param, 543 checkouts).

Positions 4-10 were 'Hope for the Flowers' (Trina Paulus, Sodam Publishing), 'Beautiful Mathematics Stories Like a Novel' (Kim Jeong-hee, Heyda), 'The Birth of Disease' (Hong Yun-chul, Say), 'Fourth Industrial Revolution: New Career Stories' (Lee Rang, Dream Rich), 'To You Who Forgot Poetry' (Jung Jae-chan, Humanist), 'I Have No Thoughts' (Martin Paju, My Life's Book), and 'Momo' (Michael Ende, Bum Woo Publishing), respectively.

Due to the effects of COVID-19 and other factors, e-book lending in 2020 nearly doubled compared to 2019 (520,179 checkouts).

Furthermore, most of the highly-ranked borrowed books were student course-related support materials, reflecting increased usage from online remote learning.

Audiobooks and video materials with unlimited listening access recorded Baek Se-hee's 'I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki' (Hun) at the top with 1,603 checkouts.

Followed by 'The Temperature of Language' (Lee Ki-joo, Malgeul Ter, 1,418 checkouts), 'The Little Prince' (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Sound Books, 1,323 checkouts), 'Greek and Roman Mythology Through Drama' (Editorial Department, Sound Books), 'A Boy Comes' (Han Kang, Changbi), 'The 90s Generation Comes' (Lim Hong-taek, Whale Book), 'Wandeuk-i' (Kim Ryeo-ryeong, Changbi), 'Comment War' (Lee Gyu-hee, Byeol Seup), 'Demian' (Hermann Hesse, Book and Book), 'I Prefer Being Alone But Why Do We All Have to Do It Together?' (Lee Hyang and Choi Hyung-mi, Pampas).

The Gyeonggi Province Cyber Library currently holds approximately 17,000 types of commercial digital materials.

Last year, 128,000 new members registered, with students (elementary, middle, and high school) comprising 50% of the total.

According to user analysis of e-books by age group, people in their 40s accounted for the largest share at 29.7%, followed by those under 10 at 24.5% and those in their 30s at 17.6%.

By gender, women accounted for 63.6% compared to men at 36.4%. From March to May, the Gyeonggi Province Cyber Library website usage increased more than 570% compared to the same period the previous year, with Mondays and Tuesdays showing the highest usage rates by day of the week.

Jo Chang-beom, Director of the Gyeonggi Province Library Policy Division, said, "We will work to create better e-book services so that Gyeonggi Province residents can enjoy reading opportunities conveniently at any time and place."

Meanwhile, the Gyeonggi Province Cyber Library is accepting applications for the 'First Hope E-books' until February 14.

Anyone who is a member of the Gyeonggi Province Cyber Library can participate, and up to 3 books per person can be requested. For more details, visit the Gyeonggi Province Cyber Library website (https://www.library.kr).