Digital Library Services

You've set a new record! This year, Torontonians borrowed more than 8 million ebooks. That's compared to 6.6 million in 2019.

Each year for the past five years, Toronto Public Library has lent more ebooks than any other library system in the world. (Last year, Los Angeles and Wisconsin came second and third, respectively.) We're aiming for the top spot again in 2020 - stay tuned!

This year, there was a significant spike in ebook borrowing starting in March, when library branches shut down. Overall, ebook usage is up about 32% over last year. 

The eight millionth ebook borrowed was Bernard Cornwell's The Last Kingdom, a 2005 novel about Saxons battling Vikings that the Observer called "like Game of Thrones, but real". Cornwell's Saxon Stories series, of which this is the first volume, was adapted for television under the title "The Last Kingdom" by the BBC starting in 2015, and acquired by Netflix in 2018. The last season was released this July. 

There's something for everyone in our ebook collection!

If you'd like to see, in real time, what ebooks people are borrowing, take a look at our OverDrive dashboard.

Keep reading, Toronto!

Edit: Last year's third-most-ebook-circulating library system was incorrectly identified as Singapore. In fact, it was the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium. We regret the error.