Most popular books from area’s libraries revealed

BUSY borrowers rented almost 6,000 books from Inverclyde’s libraries last year with new figures revealing that almost 23,000 locals now have a membership.

Inverclyde Council’s library service recorded issued books almost 100,000 times during 2023.

Over 5,700 locals loaned titles from one of the area’s six libraries.

More than 20,000 books are currently overdue across the district’s branches according to new data which shows that the longest had been outstanding for a staggering 17 years.

The council brought in almost £10,000 in 2023/24 through fees for overdue books, printing from public PCs and photocopying.

Two novels from TV personality Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series were the most commonly loaned books last year, having each been rented out a total of 76 times.

The 24th instalment in Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus series, A Heart Full of Headstones, was the third most popular book, being loaned out 74 times.

Many locals also chose to dip in to local libraries’ collections of audiobooks and DVDs.

The library service recorded 3,235 instances of audiobooks being issued and a further 437 cases of DVDs being given out.

The most popular audiobook rented was The Affair of the Thirty-Nine Cufflinks by James Anderson, while Quentin Tarantino’s blockbuster comedy-drama

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was the most loaned film.

Recent figures show that there are over 250 audiobooks which are currently overdue and 374 DVDs.

Of the 23,441 current Inverclyde Libraries members, 5,717 are aged 13 or under.

The library service has only had to remove people from the public facilities on two occasions since 2020.

In 2022, an individual was asked to leave for bad behaviour, but was subsequently allowed back into the library the following day provided they kept to the rules.

Another individual was excluded in 2023 for breaching library rules and has had a one-year ban imposed on them.