In 2023, Penfield Library was a busy place. Over 191,000 visitors came through the doors -- a 32 percent increase from 2022 -- and the library loaned out over 26,000 physical items for our users this year.
So what were all those items? Textbooks and other materials in the Course Reserves section are by far the most popular offering. These items are available at the Check-Out and Reserves Desk for three-hour in-library use. Instead of purchasing a textbook, students can check out these items for a period to complete their reading or other assignments. Penfield is able to offer this, in part, due to partnerships with faculty who lend or donate copies of the items to the library.
Also extremely popular are circulating equipment such as laptops, charging cords and cameras, which are also vital to helping students succeed academically. Having equipment to sign on to a Zoom meeting, charge a phone or complete an assignment can be vital to students, faculty and staff.
Excluding Reserve items, some of the most popular book titles include books on bioluminescence, urban affairs and this year's Oswego Reading Initiative book, "Corruptible." Graphic novels are also popular with users. Read on for the most popular book titles from Penfield Library’s physical collection this year:
Top Circulating Titles (including textbooks on Course Reserve)
- "Drugs and Society" by Glen Hanson
- "Aim for the Heart: Write, Shoot, Report, and Produce for TV and Multimedia" by Al Tompkins
- "Analyzing Sound Patterns: An Introduction to Phonology" by Long Peng
- "Informed Decisions Using Data" by Michael Sullivan, III
- "Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study" by Paula S. Rothenberg and Christina Hsu Accomando
- "Readings for a History of Anthropological Theory" by Paul A. Erickson/Liam D. Murphy
- "Deculturalization and The Struggle for Equality: A Brief History of the Education of Dominated Cultures in the United States" by Joel Spring
- "Promises Not Kept: Poverty and the Betrayal of Third World Development" by John Isbister
- "Bloom into You" by Nio Nakatani
- "The Ancient World" by Donald S. Gochberg
- "VISTAS: Introduction A La Lengua Espanola Student Activities Manual" by Blanco and Donley
- "Voices of Freedom" by Eric Foner
Top Circulating Titles (excluding Course Reserves)
- "Bloom into You" by Nio Nakatani
- "Bioluminescence: Living Lights, Lights for Living" by Therese Wilson
- "Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How it Changes Us" by Brian P. Klaas
- "Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs"
- "Roads to Infinity: The Mathematics of Truth and Proof" by John Stillwell
- "Scott Foresman Social Studies" by Candy Dawson Boyd and Carol Berkin
- "Viajes de Extranjeros por España y Portugal" by Jose Garcia Mercadal
- "Maus: A Survivor’s Tale" by Art Spiegelman
- "The Quiet Book" by Deborah Underwood
Penfield strives to offer what users need and it’s apparent that Course Reserves offerings and other collection materials are doing just that. As more and more of our information seeking is found through e-resources, physical items are still very beneficial to th university community.
Librarians are eager to see what the most borrowed titles in 2024 will be! Do you have a guess?
-- Submitted by Penfield Library