Which picture books were checked out most often from the Community Library of DeWitt and Jamesville in 2019?
There was a tie for the top spot between two wonderful stand-alone titles! That’s right, a movie or TV tie-in did not take the top spot this year! Shocking, I know! But also pretty awesome!
The Library’s top circulating books were The Color Monster : A Story About Emotions and Sophie Johnson : Unicorn Expert. Both circulated 20 times. This may seem like a small number, but when you consider that each book may be checked out for up to 3 weeks (21 days), that 20 times means the top books were checked out over and over for the entire year!
Circulated 20 Times:
Of course, there are a couple of movie and TV tie-ins in the Top 10. Paw Patrol is on the list again this year with a book that made the list last year, and, in fact, Real Rescue Dogs circulated one time more this year than last.
And Llama Llama–from the Netflix series, not the book series–is on the list as well.
The rest of the Top 10 spotlights a terrific mix of picture books featuring ever-popular characters, such as penguins, trucks, and dinosaurs. Two surprising, but well deserving, titles made the list too: Tomie dePaola’s Quiet and Brian Lies’ The Rough Patch. Check out all of the covers below.
Circulated 19 Times:
Circulated 18 Times:
Circulated 17 Times:
What are the top circulating picture books at your local library?
Take a look at the top circulating picture books at the Community Library of DeWitt & Jamesville in prior years:
Lauri Fortino's Frog On A (B)Log 
What a great collection of books! I’m curious to get my hands on these. I hadn’t thought about how many times each book might circulate in one year. Interesting.
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Hi Cynthia, I find it fascinating, but maybe that’s because I work at the library. I do know that every library’s top circs. will, of course, be different, and I’d love to compare lists with others someday. Thanks so much for commenting! 🙂
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I don’t work in a library but would love to know the top circs for my community library. Would it be awkward if I go and ask?
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The best thing to do is call your library, explain who you are (definitely mention that you’re a teacher and author) and ask to speak to the children’s librarian to find out what the top circulating picture books were for the library last year. Ask if you can email the librarian with your inquiry, especially if they are unavailable when you call. Ask for the circulation statistics. You don’t want them to just tell you what titles they thought were popular.
They will probably have to do a bit of research and get back to you at a later date with the information.
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Cynthia, If you find out your library’s top circs., please share your findings here in the comments!
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Thanks, Lauri!
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I’m not sure if this information is readily available from different libraries, but since my book was released in 2019, I learned that my library system may only have one copy of some books and 30 of another which clearly impacts circulation.
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Yes, that’s true, there are a number of factors that may impact circulation numbers, such as how many copies the library owns (or the library system) or whether the book was promoted in some way (displays, story times, author visits). In my post, I only included the library where I work and the books that this library owns, though we are part of a 31 library system. In putting together this list, I researched by single item, so even if my library owned more than one copy, each copy would come up separately on the list, so one copy may have circulated 15 times and another 12, if that makes sense. But generally, my library purchases just one copy of each picture book.
The information most likely won’t be readily available, but if you’re interested, you can contact your children’s librarian and they can find the information for you, particularly, if you’re an author and are curious to see how your specific book is circulating.
Thanks for the comment, Laura!
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I’ve actually asked about my book’s circulation and I was pleased with the number in spite of the fact it had been shelved with middle grade instead of picture books and was never displayed on the new book shelves. 🤷🏼♀️
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Odd that they shelved it with middle grade. It’s clearly a picture book. Hmm…
But I am glad you were pleased with the circulation!
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I know. In the beginning, every time I went to look for it, it was checked out which is great, but then when I couldn’t find it and it was “on the shelf” we discovered where it had been shelved. It’s since been reclassified to picture books, but never was on the new picture book shelf which was something I had really wanted to see.
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