Each January, the library compiles a list of the most requested books by library cardholders during the previous year.

There are no red carpets, trophies, or acceptance speeches. This “award” doesn't even have a name. Call it the Reader's Choice Award and ask Library Services Manager Kate Demeester-Lane to announce the winners.

“What will be the most popular book in libraries in 2023?” she laughed last week.desert starWritten by Michael Connelly. ”

“Desert Star” topped the checkout list of physical books purchased by 3,136 cardholders. The total number of checkouts was 1,861, which placed him at number 3 on the e-book list. A total of 4,997 checkouts placed Connery at number one, ensuring the mystery's long stay at the top of the library's annual bestseller list.

“I was a little surprised because it was him this time,” Demeester Lane confessed. “The usual suspects are John Grisham and james pattersonBut Connery is always popular here…and our readers love a mystery. ”

In Hollywood, award winners usually thank the people working behind the scenes. If Connelly were to do it here, it would make sense to start with Demeester Lane and her team of support services on her fourth floor at the Joel Valdez Book Library downtown.

This is the division that grows and nurtures the collection, which currently has more than 1 million items, 195,000 of which are books. These are big numbers. The research is complex, so Demeester-Lane agreed last week to illustrate it by retracing Library Lifeline in a book called “The Desert Star,'' by Michael Connelly.

• Libraries first learned about the book in May 2022, six months before it was scheduled for release. News reached the Collection Development Office, where Jessica Pride, Elizabeth Taylor, Michelle Creston, and Sarah Vega reviewed potential additions to the library catalog.
  “Desert Star'' was on a watch list compiled by Baker & Taylor, a distribution company that connects American publishers with libraries across the country.
  “Popular Fiction has an 'Automatically Yours' list of over 100 authors that you might want to include in your catalog,” Pride said. “Michael Connelly was on that list too, so there was never any question that I wanted this book.”
  The more difficult question was how many books I wanted. In the end, the library decided to order 175 books, 25 large books and 45 e-books.
• The order was then sent to the Technical Services Department, which created a coding to identify the “Desert Star” within the library's systems.
• The order was completed in May of the same year, and “Desert Star” was added to the library's catalog almost immediately. When readers learned the book was coming, they added their names to the November waiting list.
• Throughout the week of October 31, 2022, boxes of books arrived at each of the county's 27 library branches. Each copy was already labeled with a tracking code that would be built into the system.
• On the morning of November 8, 2022, with an official release date, Desert Star began arriving in the hands of library card holders, many of whom had been holding off on its release for months.

To understand the complexity of a librarian's life, understand the following: “Desert Star” was just one of his 2,100 new titles added to the library catalog that year.

Demeesterlane said the year-end numbers confirm many of the trends the library has been seeing for a while. Mystery was still the dominant genre. Cookbooks topped the nonfiction list, while picture books topped the children's section.

Interest in science fiction and fantasy is on the rise. Three of Colleen Huber's books are in the library's top 10 e-books, proving that romance is still alive and well.

Demeester Lane said the library is paying special attention to the growing popularity of e-books and the changing market for audiobooks.

“Interest in digital books really increased during the pandemic,” she recalls. “We expected that to happen because stores weren't open and people weren't going out, but we found that interest was still growing. There was an e-book reader.”

Demeester Lane said this was notable because digital books are leased rather than purchased and are more expensive than physical books.

“This can be a challenge when considering future budgets. Hardcovers have a lifespan of 80 to 100 copies. The e-books we rent often last for 26 copies.”

The rise of major streaming services such as Audible has made the audiobook market even more uncertain.

“We're currently doing a lot of research into how people use our collections and making sure they get what they want,” Demy said. Star Lane said. “If we can keep doing that, we all win.”

• Last year, library patrons borrowed 2.97 million books in three major formats.
• The growing popularity of e-books was clear. The library distributed approximately 1.1 million books, 1 million e-books, and 877,000 audiobooks in 2023.
• “George and Martha's Cocktail” ' will be in bookstores on Tuesday, and author Philip Jefter will be speaking about the book in Tucson on February 21 at the Loft Cinema (3233 E. Speedway Blvd.). Gefter's book details the making of “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton?Sponsored by Tucson Book Festival, the program begins at 6 p.m. The movie screening starts at 7:30. Admission is $10, $8 for loft membership.Learn more about tucne.ws/1p7p.