Seattle Public Library Checkouts (By Title)

Context

This dataset includes a monthly count of Seattle Public Library checkouts by title for physical and electronic items. The dataset includes checkouts from April of 2005 through February of 2025. 

This version of the dataset is discussed in the Journal of Open Humanities Data paper, "The Seattle Public Library’s Open Checkout Data: What Can It Tell Us About Readers and Book Popularity More Broadly?," by Neel Gupta, David Christensen, and Melanie Walsh. The code used to analyze the data can be found on GitHub here.

Continuously updated data is available through the City of Seattle. Ths missing May-June 2024 data has been fixed in the original source but not this Zenodo repository. 

Acknowledgements

Data from 2005 to 2016 is from the digital artwork, "Making Visible the Invisible," by studios of George Legrady. Learn more about this contribution.

Disclaimer

The data made available here has been modified for use from its original source, which is the City of Seattle. Neither the City of Seattle nor the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) makes any claims as to the completeness, timeliness, accuracy or content of any data contained in this application; makes any representation of any kind, including, but not limited to, warranty of the accuracy or fitness for a particular use; nor are any such warranties to be implied or inferred with respect to the information or data furnished herein. The data is subject to change as modifications and updates are complete. It is understood that the information contained in the web feed is being used at one's own risk.

For the complete terms of use, please see the City of Seattle Data Policy.