Help with a Query, Please

Andrew Albanese from Publishers Weekly has a question for librarians, and I hope you will help.  Please respond to him at aalbanese@publishersweekly.com

“Has there been an upside to the recent Macmillan fight: has it finally, effectively publicized that, yes, you can get e-books from the library? Librarians in previous years have told me that about 10% of their library patrons used the digital collection, or less in some cases. I am sure that’s higher today, yes? But when I was researching for a panel I did at DPLA, I was surprised to see the most popular articles that came back during a Google search were “did you know you can borrow e-books from the library?” Now, that’s not the case, as you might expect!

Did you see an increase in demand/awareness for e-books in 2019? And while I know its hard to tie any rise directly to public awareness generated by the Macmillan fight, do you have any perception that this battle has helped get the word out about e-books and digital audio in public libraries?”

Thank you for considering!