An unusual dip for downloaded audiobooks plays into the November 2020 StatShot book sales figures from the Association of American Publishers.
On the Potomac River in Washington, DC, sculling during an unusually warm spell in November. This shot was made on November 5. Image – iStockphoto: Mike Stevens
Early Holiday Shopping Boosts November
An interesting confirmation arrives today (January 25) from the Association of American Publishers (AAP) of the strength of the holiday season for the book industry in the United States.
As we’ve reported from NPD Book analysis, print book sales tracked for the year by NPD BookScan rose 8.2 percent in 2020 despite and in some ways because of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.
UC Berkeley faculty lead global efforts to increase access to research
Brianna Luna/Senior Staff
There is currently debate within the scientific community concerning how open access to research can be best implemented. According to Jeffrey MacKie-Mason, university librarian at UC Berkeley, the UC system is in support of open access but is not able to fully enforce its policy to ensure that researchers publish open access work.
Last Updated January 13, 2021
Open access publishing has been on the rise in recent years, and UC Berkeley is helping lead the movement away from traditional, subscription-based publishing models.
Progress is being made, but it is gradual. While there is general support for open access to research within the scientific community, there is debate on how to best implement it and the extent to which open access publishing should be enforced.
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Schools are also relying heavily on e-books during remote and hybrid education. Digital reading platform OverDrive reports an 80% increase worldwide in school e-book and audiobook usage.
The Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library saw dramatic increases in e-book and e-audiobook usage over the past eight years, but Holbrook Sample, chief technology and logistics officer, says usage spiked during the coronavirus pandemic. Year-over-year in November, for e-books themselves, we were up 23% and digital audiobooks were (a) 10-12% increase year-over-year, says Sample. We ve definitely seen a nice rise in usage of our digital collection.
The Kenton County Public Library is seeing a similar boom.
Surprise Ending for Publishers: In 2020, Business Was Good
With people stuck at home and so many other activities shut down, a lot of reading or at least a lot of book buying happened this year.
Barack Obama’s book “A Promised Land” was one of this year’s biggest hits.Credit.Cj Gunther/EPA, via Shutterstock
Dec. 29, 2020
Like everybody else, book publishers will be happy to see the end of 2020. But for many of them, the year has brought some positive news, which has been as welcome as it was surprising: Business has been good.
With so many people stuck at home and activities from concerts to movies off limits, people have been reading a lot or at least buying a lot of books. Print sales by units are up almost 8 percent so far this year, according to NPD BookScan. E-books and audiobooks, which make up a smaller portion of the market, are up as well.