What's popular? Death and Movies!

We often study usage statistics at the library, in order to better understand our customers and to ensure we can reasonably supply what you're seeking. Today I browsed through the list of 888 items that are currently "on hold" for DPL patrons. It seems, to no surprise really, that mysteries still rule the roost in this library. In my very unscientific survey, I noted that 57 items "on hold" had the words "kill", "dead/death", "evil", "murder" or "demon/witch/devil/vampire" in their titles. And that doesn't count the 28 current holds on Steig Larsson's "Girl" trilogy or new books in popular mystery series like Janet Evanovich's new "Sizzling Sixteen" or John Sandford's upcoming "Storm Prey". Adding all mysteries to the count, I'd estimate that 1/4 to 1/3 of the library's patrons are waiting for a mystery or a thriller.

There were also 25 holds on cookbooks (we like to eat while we read?) and over 90 holds on DVDs, most on popular new releases like The Blind Side and The Hurt Locker. There were also plenty of holds for non-fiction: I can see that school assignments are picking up speed! I can also tell that our patrons watch quite a lot of television. All the authors/pundits/politicos who've appeared lately on the talk shows and news broadcasts also have lots of holds on their books. Our users are really well informed about what new titles and new movies are coming out and you always keep us on our toes to keep up with you! Keep those requests coming and we'll do our best to fill them!