2025 ILL borrowing by format

The Borrowing Activity by Format report was introduced last April and allows us to report the following numbers for requests created by all libraries in the NHAIS ILL System from January 1 to December 31 of 2025. Formats are determined by the coding in the bibliographic records used to create the requests (more on that below). Creating requests is one thing, getting them filled is another. Next to the counts below are the percentages filled or still in process, calculated from the number of requests created by format in 2025 and the number of requests that went unfilled by format last year.

Book          170,197     96% 
DVD          14,135       96%   
Large Print      8,743    94%    
Audiobook CD  2,976   96%    
Visual Materials 1,549  92%    
Audiobook      541        90%    
Music CD      352         92%    
Blu-ray           284         92%    
Audiobook Player 218   88%    
Computer Game     126  87%    
Archival Materials 50     86%    
Music Score      45          93%    
Videocassette    37         70%    
Kit                     34          91%    
Music Recording  31      81%    
Serial                     21     57%    
3D Object             18     78%    
Periodical             18     100%    
Braille                  13     77%    
Audiobook Cassette 12  58%    
Film                     12     92%    
Map                     12     75%    
eBook Reader      11     82%    
Game                     9     89%    
eBook                    8     88%    
2d Non-projected Graphics 5  100%    
Toy                        3     67%    
Computer Program 2    100%    
Flashcard                2    100%    
Computer File        1    100%    
eAudiobook            1    100%    
Music Cassette        1    100%    

Chances are some of those formats aren't what they say they are--items listed as "Film" are probably DVDs while most of the "Archival Materials" are likely regular print books. That's usually the result of a cataloger grabbing a MARC record with a title match while not paying attention to the format coding. Then there are the correctly coded records for print books with accompanying CD-ROMs--SHAREit has a habit of seeing those as eBooks.

Which formats do borrowers want extra time with? Below are counts of renewal requests submitted through the NHAIS ILL System in 2025.

Book            11,374
Large Print        528
DVD                 394
Audiobook CD  215
Visual Materials 44
Audiobook         26
Audiobook Player 13
Music CD          13
Computer Game  6
Blu-ray                4
Map                     4
Music Score        4
Archival Materials 3
Braille                 2
Audiobook Cassette 1
Film                    1
Music Recording 1
Periodical            1
Toy                      1
Videocassette      1

Disregarding formats, a total of 199,467 requests were created in the NHAIS ILL System last year, with 96 percent filled or still in process. 12,636 renewal requests were submitted. The 199,467 total for 2025 averages out to 16,622 new requests per month or 3836 per week.