Digital Book Borrowing in Public Librairies in Québec, Canada

• In Event: 20220 - Section on Communication, Information Technology, and Media Sociology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Section on Communication, Information Technology, and Media Sociology Roundtable III: Digital Infrastructure I

Abstract

In their portrait of digital book (DB) borrowers within Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), Lapointe, Luckerhoff and Niort (2023) compared them to physical book (PB) and hybrid borrowers. Through this exercise, they identified trends and raised questions such as: What is the experience of PB borrowers who made the transition to DB? What are their borrowing experiences like? What meaning do borrowers give to the library as a place? In their qualitative analysis of book borrowers’ and non-borrowers’ experiences at BAnQ and other public libraries, Luckerhoff and Lapointe (2024) conducted over 70 individual and group interviews with borrowers and non-borrowers of BAnQ and other public libraries. Their objective was to better understand their experiences with PBs and DBs, with book venues like the public library—including BAnQ’s Grande Bibliothèque—, their perceptions of these realities, as well as their borrowing experiences. Through a little more than 30 additional interviews, we analyzed the experiences and perceptions of LP and LN readers, their borrowing experience and their relationship with public libraries as physical places.

Authors

• Jason Luckerhoff, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières

• Marie-Claude Lapointe, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières