Libraries

AUGUST 8, 2014

If you ask your library-going neighbours what they're reading, there's a good chance they'll respond with a Japanese comic book, a Swedish crime thriller, a driving guide, or recently popular S&M erotica.

A Gazette analysis of the entire catalogue of Montreal's 45 libraries showed that manga comics are by far the most loaned-out books in city libraries, followed by European comics like Les légendaires and Winx Club.

This shows that children make a significant portion of the city's library-going public, which delights the director of Montreal's library network.

"I'm happy to see that in general, Montreal's libraries have made major gains in the youth segment. They're the future of reading, an essential base for an educated city," said Luc Jodoin.

Among adults, popular English-language titles include crime novels like the Millenium trilogy by Stieg Larsson and Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James.

In French, supernatural and historical fiction are especially popular, like the A.N.G.E. series by Anne Robillard and Mémoires d'un quartier by Louise Tremblay-D'Essiambre. The data goes as far back as 2007, when the Nelligan electronic catalogue was put in place in the library network. The data tracks how many times a title was loaned since it was added to the collections.

However, the installation of new catalogue system was staggered among the different boroughs, which can make comparisons of reading habits problematic. For example, Outremont received the new system in 2007, while Saint-Laurent was added in 2009 and LaSalle in 2011 (see the note below for the full list of boroughs).

The map below shows which titles have been loaned out the most in each of the city boroughs since they had the electronic catalogue.