San Franciscans Like to Read, A Lot

San Franciscans are readers. Fifty-five percent of residents have a library card, compared with a 29 percent average nationwide, according to the San Francisco Public Library Commission. And cardholders are checking out more items than ever before. At a Commission meeting last summer it was revealed that library patrons borrowed 14 million items in fiscal year 2024, 46 percent of which were electronic materials. In 2019, 11 million items were checked out.  

“We are not a sleepy library,” said Potrero Branch Manager Rachel Bradshaw. “We don’t need a revitalization. Most Potrero patrons use the library as a Hubspot for holds.” 

The Potrero Branch doesn’t have a lot of shelf space. Patrons often request a book that another branch carries, or for which there’s a waiting list of borrowers, to be picked up locally. 

The library system is encouraging people to stop by their branch even if their requests are unavailable through its “Lucky Day” strategy, which prompted an almost 18 percent increase in library visitations citywide last year.

The Lucky Day collection, available at every San Francisco library, consists of highly popular books. If a volume is on the Lucky Day shelf it can be borrowed immediately even if there are multiple holds on it. The books can be checked out for 21 days; renewals aren’t allowed. Lucky Day titles don’t appear in the catalog. 

“SFPL wants people to visit the library so we can meet our mission statement: connect our diverse communities to learning, opportunities, and each other,” Bradshaw said. “We can’t do that without patrons choosing to visit the library.”

 Apart from the Lucky Day collection at the Potrero Branch, the most-read book for adults in the last quarter of 2024 was The Women by Kristin Hannah. 

“That book moves a lot,” Bradshaw said. “That one didn’t surprise me because books suggested on Reese Witherspoon’s book club list or in the BookTok world, we see it moving here.”

A volume whose popularity did surprise her is the one most circulated for teens: Every Day by David Levithan. 

“It was published in 2012 and turned into a movie in 2018,” she said. “It wasn’t recently acquired by a streaming service and I couldn’t pinpoint why it’s moving all of a sudden.”

For children, the most checked-out book was Dog Man: Grime and Punishment by Dav Pilkey. The graphic novel is the ninth in Pilkey’s series. Although it’s geared toward first- and second graders, it also appeals to fifth- and sixth-graders, according to Bradshaw. 

“Something about the tropes and formatting does really well for elementary-school kids, especially reluctant readers,” Bradshaw said. “This is incredibly important because it allows them to read something with confidence and have a positive association with books.”

The San Francisco Public Library system doesn’t track e- or audiobooks by branches. The top ebooks for the year for adults citywide were Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros and Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond. For teens, it was A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. For children, Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea by Dav Pilkey.