The Digital Toolbox — Audiobooks Pack a Punch in Academic Collections

Column Editor: Steve Rosato (Director and Business Development Executive, OverDrive Professional, Cleveland, OH 44125) <srosato@overdrive.com>

As the U.S. and global communities turn a corner that will make possible a return to being on campus, in offices and the ability to travel again in the coming months, I would like to revisit a pre-COVID trend that is bubbling up again.

In the months before COVID, one of the most common inquiries the OverDrive Professional team received from academic institutions was for audiobook options for students. The appeal of books that are professionally narrated and audiobooks’ accessibility were key drivers for institutions to provide convenient access to books in a variety of genres. With the onset of COVID, those calls stopped and institutions that initially had an interest either experienced budget cuts or shifted their priorities toward more pressing pandemic-related issues.

At the one-year mark of the pandemic, interest in audiobooks has returned. As we received more calls about options for audiobooks, I began to research if there were any helpful trends to understand this shift. I was surprised at some of the data for audiobook vs. ebook use. One interesting data point during COVID was that across all OverDrive digital library platforms, audiobooks went from a 30-40 percent annual growth rate of circulations over a six-year period to under 20 percent during COVID. On the other hand, ebooks saw a much sharper spike due to COVID, increasing from 10 percent+ annual growth to 50 percent. We speculate that with less commuting and travel, and people no longer going to places like the gym where audiobooks gained much of their popularity, the decline was inevitable.

I expected when reviewing this data — and comparing Q1 of 2021 to pre-COVID Q1 of 2019 — to see audiobooks come down to earth in comparison to ebooks in a pronounced way for academic libraries. I used OverDrive’s public library data as a barometer, and with circs in Q1 2021 well over 200 million, circs for ebooks and audiobooks both jumped by 47 percent from 2019 to 2021. It is remarkably consistent that from 2019-2021 ebooks circulated at a roughly 2:1 ratio to audiobooks in public libraries. Public libraries have much more robust audiobook collections and purposefully cater to pleasure reading, which plays into audiobooks’ strength and makes them a popular format.

Next, I looked at the circ data for academic libraries. I was certain that OverDrive’s academic partners would see at least 4 ebook circs for each audiobook circ, especially given the average digital holdings are about 4 ebooks for every audiobook. One part of my theory played out with ebook circs jumping 54 percent from 2019 to 2021, where audiobooks “only” increased by 38 percent. However, this next data point was shocking: For every 1.3 ebooks that circulated in academic libraries in 2021, one audiobook circulated. In 2020 and 2019, it was 1.2 to 1 ebooks to audio. It is nearly a 1:1 ratio! I could not be more surprised. This ratio holds true for both before and after the start of COVID.

I am personally a huge audiobook fan. I buy and borrow a lot of books that gather dust and decorate my nightstand, but I also listen to 2-3 audiobooks a month because I can “read” while doing other activities. There are many benefits of audiobooks as an option for students. For example, many students are audio learners. They can comprehend better when hearing the material. When a student is overwhelmed by a lengthy book, they know how long the audiobook is and can budget time accordingly. Some students comprehend better when moving. With an audiobook, students can exercise, do laundry or cook while completing their reading assignments.

There are many good reasons why audio makes a collection more accessible and contributes to students’ academic success. No one knows that better than academic librarians. That is why there’s a renewed interest in looking at audio as an important part of any collection. The most popular audiobook genres in academic libraries include biography, self-help, social science and business/ leadership, as well as fiction titles in mystery and adventure. The data both before and after the start of COVID supports how much students are using audio content in existing collections.

Robert Heaton, Collection Management Librarian from Utah State University, offers his observations why audiobooks are gaining use on his campus: “In today’s attention economy, users delegate more tasks than ever to their devices. Their smartphone is their calendar, source of news, directions, catering and more. When you can choose an audiobook option, it frees up attention for driving, gardening, working out, or those other activities that you’re going to be doing anyway. In an academic environment, device-dependence likely increases with one’s education and the busyness of one’s schedule. The growing smart-speaker market also normalizes audio output for users as well as the sexier tech topic of voice input.”

Mr. Heaton continued: “Utah State University’s selections have occasional overlap with course syllabi, but our OverDrive collections have never been intended to support classroom learning; that collection has been for leisure reading and literature. Deliberately building audiobooks into student learning would require a shift in how courses are designed and administered, but the past year has proven that academic libraries can be flexible!”

Like water finding its level, audiobooks gained ground because they provide a more convenient option that students are actively seeking. Pre-COVID, the interest on campuses for audiobooks was driven by librarians looking to support leisure reading and having alternative formats available to engage students. While that paused because libraries had to deal with providing everything remotely, budget cuts and everything else that came with the pandemic, that did not stop students from discovering what was already available in an audio format in their collections.

OverDrive’s data shows a marked increase in students using audiobooks. While it should not be a surprise that the format would gain traction as audiobooks have in all markets, what is surprising is how audio outperformed ebooks relative to their portion of almost any university’s collection. Utah State University’s Mr. Heaton’s observations for audiobooks are spot on and provide valuable insight into the nature of this trend. As students are increasingly device-dependent, they are more apt to delegate even academic duties to their phones or other devices. The advances in technology for what will be available in an audio format in the coming years will give academic libraries the chance to provide new resources that are more accessible in more subject areas. Giving students more options in audio is simply meeting them where they are going.