We're No. 2 (and 3)! Why King County Library tops the digital charts

The King County Library has emerged to become second most popular library across the United States — digitally.

King County Library System cardholders checked out more than 8.8 million online titles in 2023. That adds up to the third-largest digital circulation in the world, and the second largest in the USA.

"It's something that we're really proud of and we hope to hit No. 1 at some point," KCLS interim Executive Director Angie Miraflor told Seattle Now. "It's been increasing steadily, as a trend, in public libraries as people get more used to using devices to read their materials on, but it's been pretty significant at King County Library System."

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The statistics come from OverDrive, a digital-reading platform. King County's third-place global ranking includes the online circulation of eBooks, digital magazines, and audiobooks.

Check out King County's top digital titles below.

Digital libraries

Last year also served as somewhat of a comeback for the King County Library System. In 2019-20, it ranked third in the world, but dropped to fourth place globally over 2021-22. Now, it has taken third place back.

Los Angeles Public Library and Toronto Public Library took first and second place, respectively last year. King County came ahead of the National Library in Singapore, which took fourth place. Multnomah Public Library (covering Portland) ranked seventh, and the Seattle Public Library came in at eighth place.

King County's digital consumption is part of a global rise in online readership. OverDrive notes that global digital readership shot up 19% in 2023, over 2022, with 662 million online checkouts.

"Some of that has to do with the pandemic, being shut down, and not having as much access to print materials as before, but we've also been open for the last couple years and the statistics continue to increase," Miraflor said. "I feel like now, people are not looking at digital eBooks or audio books as something different. It's just another platform to get information, to get a good story — people are incorporating it into their commuter time."

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The King County Library System noted a milestone in 2019, when its circulation of eBooks surpassed five million (5.6 million eBooks, digital magazine, or audio books to be exact). While there was a considerable jump after the pandemic struck in 2020, the digital numbers have continued to rise, adding up to a 56% increase in digital consumption between 2019 and 2023.

2019: 5,678,572 digital titles (Top titles: "Becoming" by Michelle Obama; “Educated: a Memoir,” by Tara Westover; “Where the Crawdads Sing,” by Delia Owens; “Crazy Rich Asians: Crazy Rich Asians Series, Book 1,” by Kevin Kwan; “Little Fires Everywhere,” by Celeste Ng)

2020: 7,408,428 digital titles (“So You Want to Talk about Race” by Ijeoma Oluo; “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” by K. Rowling; “Becoming” by Michelle Obama; “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens; “Talking to Strangers” by Malcolm Gladwell)

2021: 7,868,850 digital titles ("The Four Winds” by Kristin Hannah; “A Promised Land” by Barack Obama; “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Deep End” by Jeff Kinney; “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig; “Talking to Strangers” by Malcolm Gladwell)

2022: 7,957,226 digital titles (“The Last Thing He Told Me” by Laura Dave; “Dune” by Frank Herbert; “The Lincoln Highway” by Amor Towles; “Apples Never Fall” by Liane Moriarty “Cloud Cuckoo Land” by Anthony Doerr)

So far in 2024, the King County Library has already checked out more than 664,000 digital titles.

In addition to online reading materials, the library also offers streaming TV, music, movies, and more.

Top 2023 digital titles at King County Library System

1. “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros
2. “Spare” by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex
3. “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus
4. “I'm Glad My Mom Died” by Jennette McCurdy
5. “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Deep End” by Jeff Kinney

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Miraflor said the top titles reflect a range of audience genre preferences, such as fiction, memoir, history, and children. They also mirror lists of best sellers in 2023.

The books also provide an insight into the zeitgeist and pop culture of the year. "Lessons in Chemistry" was recently turned into an Apple TV series, so that may have given it a boost in 2023. The book "Dune" topped the charts in 2022, on the heels of the film version released at the end of 2021. “So You Want to Talk about Race” by local author Ijeoma Oluo was first published in 2018, but rose in popularity in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd and amid widespread protests against police violence and racism.

"I think [this list] says that we like to read, but that we use it for different kinds of outlets," Miraflor said. "I think people use it as a way to get information. People use it as a way to escape. We have a lot of book clubs at our libraries, so people use it as a way to gather as community, but to also talk about larger issues. What may be a fiction book, or sci-fi, or fantasy does have a lot of social messages in it almost every singe time ... and to be able to share those thoughts with other people in the community is really important. It just shows that our community knows that books and reading is still a really important way to engage in the world and with each other."

Check out Seattle Now's full conversation with Miraflor here.