by: Mark Medley
If we learn anything from the inaugural National Book Count, it’s that we’re a country of voracious readers: according to their numbers Canadians bought or borrowed 2,714, 946 books between January 10 and 16.
So how’d they come up with this number?
"Book sales were collected by three book sale aggregators: BookNet Canada, BookManager, and la Société de gestion de la Banque de titres de langue française (BTLF) and book circulation was tracked by the Canadian Urban Libraries Council.
The numbers were collected and combined by the National Reading Campaign and cover 22 public library systems, 80 percent of the English language book retail market and 40 percent of the French language retail market across Canada. No individual consumer information was collected. Online print book sales were captured from major online retailers including Amazon.ca and Indigo.ca. Digital downloads from public libraries were included but not from retailers.
*The Canadian Urban Libraries Council tracked circulation figures for the public libraries in Brampton, Burlington, Burnaby, Calgary, Edmonton, Gatineau, Greater Victoria, Halifax, Hamilton, Kitchener, Markham, Ottawa, Regina, Richmond, Saskatoon, Surrey, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Vancouver, Vancouver Island, Whitby, and Winnipeg. The circulation figure covers over 11.2 million Canadians."
So what’s the split between buying a book and borrowing one from the library? Pretty close. According to the press release:
"1,110,568 books were sold by retailers including Indigo Books & Music, Amazon.ca and other national chains as well as over 260 independent bookstores across the country. 1,604,378 books were borrowed from 22 participating public library systems.*
2,714, 946 books in seven days means that in a typical week in January, Canadians bought or borrowed as many books as they purchased tickets to the top box office film. In fact, it is likely that more people picked a book than watched a game on Hockey Night in Canada. We do so much to promote film and to encourage youth to play hockey. Do we do as much to advance reading? The NRC believes our nation can do much more."
These numbers are being released on the eve of the second TD National Reading Summit, which begins in Montreal on 20th.
from: National Post
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