Wisconsin Library Users Checked Our More Than Seven Million Ebooks and Audiobooks in 2021

In 2021, Wisconsin’s Digital Library, a collaboration of all 16 of the state’s public library systems, broke records by lending over 7.2 million digital books and audiobooks. Since its inception in 2016, Wisconsin’s Digital Library has seen steady and occasionally explosive usage growth, demonstrating the ongoing value of public libraries lending ebooks and digital audiobooks. Even as physical library buildings reopened and collections were once again accessible, usage of the library continued to climb.

To meet last year’s growing demand from patrons, Wisconsin’s Digital Library added more copies of popular titles and collections of always-available ebooks and digital magazines for readers who want to avoid the line and start reading right away.

Of the more than 115,000 titles in the collection, the following were the most popular in 2021.

The top 5 ebook titles borrowed through Wisconsin’s Digital Library in 2021:

1. Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder
2. The Four Winds: A Novel by Kristin Hannah
3. Bridgerton Collection by Julia Quinn
4. The Giver of Stars: A Novel by Jojo Moyes
5. Little Fires Everywhere: A Novel by Celeste Ng

The top 5 digital audiobook titles borrowed through Wisconsin’s Digital Library in 2021:

1. Cold Mourning: Stonechild and Rouleau Mystery Series, Book 1 by Brenda Chapman
2. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
3. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
4. Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know by Malcolm Gladwell
5. Becoming by Michelle Obama

Readers in Wisconsin just need a valid library card to access digital books from Wisconsin’s Digital Library, powered by OverDrive, using any major device, mobile or desktop. Visit https://wplc.overdrive.com/, download the Libby app, or call your local library to get started borrowing ebooks, audiobooks, and digital magazines anytime, anywhere, for free.