Skip to main content
Last year, Portlanders checked out a record 3 million audio and e-books from Multnomah County Library, making it the sixth largest digital circulation in the country and the seventh largest in the world.
The ranking comes from Rakuten OverDrive, the company behind library audio and e-book app Libby. Digital checkouts from the Multnomah County Library have been on a steady increase, going up 210 percent in the last five years, according to Multnomah County Library Electronic Content Librarian Kady Ferris.
Portland's most popular e-book of 2019 year was Michelle Obama's Becoming, which also broke the library's record for number of holds placed on a book.
In November, Multnomah County Library announced that it would stop buying e-books from Macmillan after the publishing giant imposed an embargo on libraries' access to new digital titles.
Related: Multnomah County Library Asks People to Sign Petition Protesting Restricted Access to E-Books.
Read the full list of last year's most checked out e-book titles and the library systems with the biggest digital systems below.
Multnomah County’s Most Checked Out Ebooks of 2019
1. Becoming by Michelle Obama
2. Educated by Tara Westover
3. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
4. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
5. Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
Top Digital Circulating Library Systems Worldwide in 2019
1. Toronto Public Library
2. Los Angeles Public Library
3. King County Library System, Washington
4. New York Public Library
5. National Library Board Singapore
6. Seattle Public Library
7. Multnomah County Library, Oregon
8. Hennepin County Library, Minnesota
9. Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio
10. Mid-Continent Public Library, Missouri