Stuart Gallacher

Data Journalism: JRNL 4165

September 29, 2014

Assignment #1 – Data Story Analysis

This article was about which library books in the UK were borrowed most in 2012-13 and who the most borrowed authors were.

The article highlights the most borrowed books in three categories: fiction, non-fiction, and children’s books. It also includes the most borrowed books in previous years and, in some cases, ranks second and third place.  

The data for the story was provided by the Public Lending Right (PLR), which also “manages the payment to authors [and] shows the top 100 most borrowed books in the UK.”

Data on the total number of library loans a year was provided by the Chartered Institute of Finance and Accountancy, and in fact showed a decline in the number of people borrowing books from UK libraries. The article also provides two links to the data sets that were used. 

One of the story’s strengths is that it provides a chart showing exactly (in millions) how much of a decline there’s been in the number of people borrowing books from UK libraries over the last 15 years. As a result, you get a clear idea of how these numbers stack up and the existing trend of people borrowing books, or not for that matter—it’s gradually declined over from 460 million books in 1998-99 to 230 million in 2012-13.

It’s an interesting article because it addresses statistics on borrowing books from libraries in a time where e-readers and alternative forms of media are more available than ever.

As far as weaknesses in the story, we know that bookstores are closing down everywhere, so there could have been a short narrative on how people are accessing and consuming literature, by and large

It’s good that the article features the actual top 100 chart of the most borrowed library books, which includes: rank, title, contributor (author), publisher and year. It’s also interesting to see how many times the same contributor’s (author) name shows up on that list, as well as book titles that are part of a series. 

In addition to the story’s strengths, it highlights what books were the most popular in certain regions of the UK. On the other hand, it does not suggest what the cause of those trends—political or cultural—might be.  

While the most popular library book in 2012-13 was Lee Child’s The Affair with almost 80,000 loans, it would have been interesting to see how that number compares to other places in the world.  

James Patterson is also the most borrowed author for the seventh running year, which is exemplified by the fact that he has 15 titles in the top 100 most borrowed list.

Overall, the narrative of the story isn’t very deep—it’s a quick glance at what book titles and authors are the most popular in UK libraries without much more than a few regional trends to look at.

I think the article would be stronger if there was more than one quote, which comes from a man named John Dugdale without any introduction. I had to search his name to figure out who he was: The Guardian’s associate media editor.    

The story serves a fairly basic purpose and inspires some curiosity as to how much we use libraries in a digital age.   

Link to story: 

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/feb/14/most-borrowed-library-books-2012-13