Primary Research Group has published The Survey of Public Library Book Sales Practices, ISBN 978-1-57440-269-8.

The survey presents data from 50 public libraries, predominantly in the USA but also from Canada and Australia, about their library policies on sales to the public of excess and donated books, DVDs, audiobooks and other forms of intellectual property. The study presents highly detailed data on revenues garnered, prices charged, venues sold through, sources of revenue, and many other factors in library materials sales. The study helps library planners to answer questions such as: how much do libraries earn by selling books online? What percentage of library book sales are accounted for by Friends of the Library and similar groups? What are total revenues through all sales of intellectual property by libraries and what is the trend in revenues? How many book donations do libraries receive each year? How many DVDs? How many of these do they keep for their own collection and how many do they manage to sell? What are the best-selling genres?

Just a few of this 90-page report's many findings are that:

• Libraries servicing populations greater than 100,000 earned close to $27,000 in the past year through sales of books and other materials.
• Audio books accounted for 3.91% of total sales, 4.08% in the USA and only 1.67% elsewhere.
• Larger libraries were more adept at selling their stock than were their smaller counterparts. Libraries with budgets of less than $50,000 sold less than 30% of donated books while those with budgets greater than $1 million sold more than 54%.
• Donations of books to US public libraries in the sample increased by 7.23% in 2013.

The study is available directly from Primary Research Group and also from major distributors of books and research reports. Print and PDF versions are available for $59.00. Site licenses are also available. For a table of contents, free excerpt and participants list, visit our website at www.PrimaryResarch.com.