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Libraries see big increase in digital check-outs, but physical books hold appeal

RICHARD DUCKETT

It’s an interesting reading item.

According to CW MARS, a library consortium whose members consist of many local area libraries including the Worcester Public Library, there was an increase of 34% in checkouts on digital content in member libraries in 2020 over 2019.

In total, there were 1.808 million checkouts on electronic content during 2020.

“We were really pleased to see the usage. 2020 was our highest (digital) check-out ever — 461,000 more,” said Jeanette Lundgren, executive director of CW MARS, which is at 67 Millbrook St.

CW Mars, standing for Central and Western Massachusetts Resource Sharing, was founded in 1982 to assist member libraries, now numbering more than 150 large and small, with sharing of resources and an array of support that has become increasingly technical, including hosting and supporting the hardware and software needed to power its shared online library catalog and library staff software.

The Worcester Public Library is “our number one user with the highest number number of checkouts in the (2020) calendar year,” Lundgren said.

But there’s a page turner (or “click next”) in the numbers.

While physical circulation in 2020 was down 54% from 2019 — probably largely accountable to the pandemic — the number of physical books checked out was 5.3 million.

“The year before it was over 11 million,” Lundgren said.

On the other hand, 5.3 million is more than 1.808 million.

The Worcester Public Library itself saw similar numbers, said Jason L. Homer, the library’s new executive director.

Given the times the library has been closed during the pandemic, “our print collection held pretty strong,” Homer said.

Nevertheless, “I don’t think that online is going away.”

CW MARS member libraries have been providing readers 24/7 access to ebooks and audiobooks since 2009 through OverDrive and its Libby reading app.

OverDrive Inc. is an American digital distributor of eBooks, audiobooks, magazines and streaming video titles that provides secure management, digital rights management, and download fulfillment services for publishers, libraries, schools, corporations and retailers. It charges libraries through leasing and licensing deals.

Reader interest and usage of digital books has grown every year, Lundgren said. It was a little slow at first. “It took us nine years to hit one million,” she said.

But 2018 and 2019 were good years for digital check-outs prior to the exponential rise of 2020.

Member libraries with the highest amount of digital book checkouts besides Worcester included Shrewsbury Public Library, Jones Library (Amherst), Forbes Library (Northampton), Springfield Public Library, Hopkinton Public Library, Marlborough Public Library, Westborough Public Library, Westfield Athenaeum and Berkshire Athenaeum (Pittsfield).

The highest-circulating title CW MARS readers borrowed through OverDrive in 2020 was “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens.

According to OverDrive, it offers a growing collection of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, and streaming videos. Libraries can build their individual digital collection from its catalog of millions of titles from over 30,000 publishers. Books can be borrowed through the Libby app or the OverDrive app, in browsers, on ereaders or MP3 players, or on Kindle devices.

“A lot more people are using it on phones, tablets,” Lundgren said of the app. Books can be borrowed for 7, 14 or 21 days. The default is 14 days.

‘When they expire they basically disappear from your device,” Lundgren said. “No fines, nothing’s ever due.”

Readers in Central and Western Massachusetts just need a valid library card from a CW MARS member library to access digital books from CW MARS’s OverDrive-powered digital collection.

The digital numbers might conjure up thoughts of days ahead when there will be no physical libraries, just people borrowing books via their phones.

But the print check-out numbers say not so fast, not to mention the millions of dollars of work on renovations at the main branch of the Worcester Public Library at 3 Salem St..

“The new normal remains to be seen,” Lundgren said. “Our print material check-outs are still materially higher than digital check-outs, but we have seen (digital) go up every year. There are a lot of patrons who prefer reading in physical book format. I don’t think that will change.”

Lundgren said that digital check-outs will continue to be favored by people with distance and disability issues, among many others.

And digital lending has shown its value in a year hit hard by a global pandemic.

Homer came on board as the Worcester Public Library’s new executive director Dec. 7. He had previously served as director of the Morse Institute Library, a public library in Natick.

“I’m very happy to be here, which is like a dream job,” he said.

The main library and its branches had been closed in March, April and May due to the pandemic. The main library then reopened (with branches offering holds pickup) but closed again shortly after Christmas for a few weeks because of the increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases in Worcester.

The main library reopened again Feb. 1 (with branches again providing holds pick up) providing limited services including appointments for computer use, printing, copying and faxing.

The library was beginning with having six computers (out of a possible 20) in use at any one time, Homer said. “To get started and keep our fingers on the pulse.”

Some people might use the computers for entertainment, while others are seeking jobs, he noted.

When the pandemic first hit, one concern was “could we still lend books” with the coronavirus and “could it be spread from person to person?” Homer said. (Books in

Executive director Jason Homer shows off renovations to the children’s floor at the Worcester Public Library. The ceiling will replicate the sky and change to resemble day and night throughout the course of the day.

ASHLEY GREEN

‘Break the awkward silence’: Worcester’s poets laureate talk poetry in a convulsive year

VICTOR D. INFANTE

Ayear ago, then-newly appointed Worcester poet laureate Juan Matos and youth poet laureate Amina Mohammed made their first official appearances, reading poems at the inauguration ceremony for the City Council and School Committee Jan. 2, 2020, at Mechanics Hall. It was an inspiring affair, with both poets imbuing the event with a sense of vitality and hope.

Fast-forward a year to Jan. 26, 2021, and the pair are again reading poems before a City Council meeting, This time, though, it’s on Zoom, and while it’s not where they thought they’d be when it started, both poems are invigorating. “Resilient hearts, beating, marching on like/the hands of Worcester’s old historic clocks,” says Matos, in a tribute to Worcester’s labor heritage and to his predecessor in the poet laureate role, Gertrude Halstead, “illuminate the future, defy death.” Mohammed is more direct, her poem addressing city landmarks now gone or transformed, and despite acknowledging the current of change, asking, “Don’t you think we should just admire our city as it is?”

It was a capstone to a year that didn’t go as anyone had predicted. They had expected, when they took on the roles, to be spending time with community readings and presentations in classrooms, but have instead found themselves navigating online workshops and poetry readings, including a reading scheduled for Feb. 24 with special guest Dominican poet and actress Marleny Luna. For more information on the event or to sign up for the online open reading, email Culture@WorcesterMA.gov or call (508) 799-1400, ext. 31415. Open mic sign-ups close Feb. 22.

“I thought I was going to get more active with the community,” says Mohammed, reflecting on her initial plans as youth poet laureate. “Getting out there, sitting down with different individuals and youths … all types of people, all over the city, and just reading poetry to them, talking with them, getting to know them, getting active and stuff. Then COVID hit and it was like … Change of plans!”

Matos, too, found the transition jarring, saying, “Suddenly, life changed for everything. I’ve had a lot of painful loss ... friends, writers here and in the Dominican Republic. One in Colombia, one in Spain. That was devastating, of course.” He was also concerned that, as a diabetic over 60 who had recently had a heart attack, he was at risk. He found himself asking, “I’m talking about poetry readings while other people are passing away?” saying, “I had mixed feelings about everything at the beginning.”

He recalls the year had gotten off to great start, with a program at Worcester Academy where the students put together an anthology in English and Spanish, which included poems in Spanish by non-native speakers. “They embraced poetry,” says Matos. “Having them express themselves in Spanish, even with a limited vocabulary, expressing their feelings at the beginning of the pandemic. That was awesome.”

Soon, though, schools would be closed, which directly affected Mohammed, who found herself finishing her senior year at Holy Name High School in a virtual classroom, and attending her first semester of classes at University of Massachusetts – Lowell remotely, living at home with her father and brothers. As a poet, let alone a poet laureate, she was forced to ask herself, “Even though we’re stuck in the house, how can we still be in the community? How can we still make a presence in the lives of individuals, and try to brighten up the situation that’s going on?”

It was a question they both wrestled with, and there were no easy answers. It’s easy to frame in terms of what didn’t happen. Matos had very much been looking forward to working with poet Tony Brown and others to establish a series of community readings in different neighborhoods around the city. He had also expected to spend more time in classrooms, and instead has only visited three classes in the Worcester Public School System, even on Zoom. “I’m a retired teacher,” says Matos, expressing sympathy for teachers who have had to learn new ways to teach. “I don’t blame colleagues.” Still, it was an illustration of the many things that slipped through the cracks, at a time when poetry seems more relevant and necessary than at any time in recent memory, a point driven home to both Matos and Mohammed with the Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of the slaying of George Floyd.

Matos found himself asking. “Where’s your voice?” Mohammed concurred, finding herself wondering,” How can I use my voice to talk about distressing topics, how can my poetry help to encourage others to use their voices, use their talents to break the awkward silences.” That’s not the sort of question to which one ever finds a definitive answer. “I’m still figuring out how I can use my voice to empower others,” she says, “Get people talking, use poetry as a platform to encourage others to speak up as well, because it’s obvious there’s a lot of wrongs going on in our society, a lot of things that need to be fixed … it’s no time to push things under the rug.”

A lot of Mohammed’s thoughts were crystalized by the poem Amanda Gorman read at the presidential inauguration, “The Hill We Climb,” and the subsequent public reaction to that poem and her poem presented at the Super Bowl.

“She said everything perfectly,” says Mohammed. “I feel like she couldn’t have been any more direct … She said everything that needs to be said. I think before, in our society, we got comfortable with sugarcoating things. ‘Let’s not talk about this issue’ because, you know, people want to stay away from it because they’re not comfortable addressing certain topics.”

“In that moment,” she says, reflecting on Gorman’s poem and the hard subjects it touched upon, including the Jan. 6 Capitol incursion, “what I took from it is what can we do to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Matos says that the poems he’s been writing these days have been, “amazingly, about hope. Feeling hope. It’s the inner voice that I feel in myself … The poems that that I’ve been writing have to do with raising up humankind, raising up the people. Even though the socio-situation is difficult, we are responding to justice, and trying to make justice out of everything that’s going on … I feel that we, as writers, have a responsibility to be that voice that, in spite of everything, fights for hope, continues to fight for civil rights, and supporting art.”

Both poets have found this a transformative year, but that transformation is more immediately evident in Mohammed, who says the year “has made me more confident. Before, I was a very shy person. I couldn’t imagine having deep conversations with anyone.” She recalls that reading at Mechanics Hall, a year before, and remembers, “I was scared, I had knots in my stomach, I was shaking. I can even remember, the day of the inauguration, I felt like I was going to pass out. I don’t really get that feeling anymore. (The year) has made me a lot more confident, and made me a lot more outgoing … that’s what poetry has done for me … It has made me way more confident, outgoing, outspoken, made me realize that I need to speak up. We all need to speak up, especially those of us who are quiet. It’s OK to be a really reserved person, but when the time comes, speak up ... There are people that want you to be silent. They don’t want you to say anything. They don’t want you to speak up in certain situations, because it’ll damage their image, their beliefs. Speak up. That’s what poetry has taught me.”

Worcester’s poet laureate Juan Matos and youth poet laureate Amina Mohammed.

RICK CINCLAIR

Music Worcester presents Rhiannon Giddens livestream concert Feb. 20

RICHARD DUCKETT

Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens will perform a special hour-long program for Music Worcester audiences with frequent collaborator Francesco Turrisi direct from her living room in Dublin at 2 p.m. Feb. 20.

Giddens’ latest album, “there is no Other,” recorded with multi-instrumentalist Turrisi, is set for May 3 release on Nonesuch Records. The album “illuminates the universality of music and the commonality of the human experience” and mixes original songs by Giddens with a diverse set of interpretations ranging from Ola Belle Reed’s “I’m Gonna Write Me a Letter” and Oscar Brown Jr.’s “Brown Baby” to the Italian traditional “Pizzica di San Vito.”

Last year, Giddens was appointed as the new artistic director of Silkroad ensemble, succeeding Yo-Yo Ma. Silkroad has been to Worcester several times, including a multi-year residence at the College of the Holy Cross.

Tickets for the 2 p.m. Feb. 20 livestream are $15. Visit www. musicworcester.org.

Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi will perform in a livestream direct from her living room in Dublin at 2 p.m. Feb. 20.

SUBMITTED PHOTO

LIBRARIES

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the library’s bins are quarantined.)

Digital use hit 14.7% in March and then climbed to 38 % in April. The average for 2020 was 31%, Homer said.

“We know people are staying home. That makes sense, especially with people with multiple risk factors.”

With that, “From reopen until the end of December 2020, we have had 22,996 visitors come pick up books,” Homer said.

“We saw it really high when as a state we were doing well with the numbers. As the numbers changed, the people in the building dropped. We still had curb pickup for books.”

Who is picking up those books?

Homer said that a Pew Research Center study found that young adults were more likely to read print books than ebooks, although most did read both. Ebooks were not a break from their regular activities, but physical books were.

“It’s interesting,” Homer said. “There’s definitely going to be an increase in ebooks. Some people didn’t even know we had ebooks, so I think it definitely has increased people’s knowledge.”

The library’s future online presence won’t just be in the sphere of books, just as the library offers many activities beyond lending such as classes, discussion groups and even showing movies.

Homer said that a genealogy class at the library that had drawn 10 people in-person saw 45 people attending online.

But meanwhile, Homer said he gets emails from people asking “ ‘when can I come back and just browse?’ “

And there’s a mood out there of “I think we can’t wait to have some in-person stuff,” he said.

If it comes soon it will be timely.

The main branch of the Worcester Public Library hopes to complete a major renovation in the spring, something that’s been in the works for some time.

“We will have a grand opening of some kind with more information as we have a tighter timeline,” Homer said,.

The renovation project will open up the library to the Worcester Common by creating a new entrance on Franklin Street. “This entrance will help us contribute to the vibrancy of the up-and-coming neighborhood, while making it easier to connect with people in the heart of downtown,” Homer said.

In addition to the new entry, the covered walkway along Salem Street will be enclosed, adding 8,000 additional square feet of space to the first floor. “This will create more public space, and allow for the creation of a Digital Studio and Innovation Center, as well as the improvement of several areas of the ground floor, including the Teen Space, audiovisual area and bookstore.”

The Periodicals area will be moving to the first floor in place of the current Children’s Room. “This new space will include quiet study areas, a computer lab and a reference desk,” Homer said.

“Finally, the Children’s Room will be moving to the current Periodicals location on the third floor. The third floor will offer a more secure location, with its own restroom facilities and controlled points of entry. The room will be accessible from two elevators, as well as two fire-rated stairwells. An updated layout and design will make the room more visually appealing, while also supporting interactive learning and development. The new, modern Children’s Room will foster independence, as well as group engagement with a variety of spaces and activities for children of all ages. The new Children’s Room will create a non-academic environment where children can encounter lifelong learning in a joyous way.”

It will be great to read about the new look library — one way or another.

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