The quarterly Panorama Picks lists dig into anonymized data of digital library holds and breaks that data up by the nine American Booksellers Association regions. What makes Panorama Picks fascinating is the methodology: rather than sticking to the top, most popular titles, the lists look at the books that are also in high demand but not as popular. This gives a great idea of books with regional interest, as well as books that may be worth highlighting and recommending in a broader way. They’re in demand and have the potential for becoming even more desired. For libraries and bookstores, this means ordering additional copies and while many of the books are on backorder, digital editions will likely remain in high demand given the pandemic. All of the books were categorized as adult titles and, as always, are based on digital requests. “This is the first time we’ve looked at a period of time based on specific events, and at a specific set of categories related to the publishing industry’s response to those events. It’s also the first time we haven’t limited books’ publication dates to a specific period of time. As a result, the 42 titles we’ve surfaced represent a much deeper collection than we’ve seen in most anti-racist reading lists, many of which you probably wouldn’t have found on a bookstores’ physical shelves back on March 1st. It really demonstrates libraries’ strength when it comes to discovery—whether serendipitous or curated—especially on a regional level,” said Guy LeCharles Gonzalez, Project Lead for the Panorama Project. In exploring the current popularity of anti-racism books in libraries across America, Panorama Picks did not set a limit on publication dates. Any anti-racism book, published at any time, was considered. The holds at libraries were measured from March 1 to April 21, 2020, which captures the immediate weeks following the murder of Ahmed Arbery. The national list of most requested anti-racism books were sorted and the top 10 titles were identified. From there, each of the nine regional lists were sorted, removing the top 10 national titles. The regional lists were then sorted by holds per unit, then winnowed down to 15 titles per region. “Some of the unique titles in each region may seem obvious, but given the mainstream awareness HBO’s Watchmen series brought to the destruction of Black Wall Street, I wonder why Tim Madigan’s The Burning only appeared on the one list represented by Oklahoma libraries. Why was Daniel Hill’s White Awake—a three-year-old title that doesn’t appear to have garnered a single mainstream review—so popular in the Great Lakes, Mountains & Plains, and Pacific Northwest regions?” Gonzalez said. Eligible books in the sorting were determined by BISAC codes that included Discrimination, Civil Rights, Race and Ethnic Relations, African American Studies, and African American and Black Biographies and Autobiographies. First, a look at the top 10 anti-racism books in US libraries. None of these will be a surprise, given they are the same titles that have appeared on bestseller lists. Note that it is once again the book by a white female writer topping the list. Six titles were deemed the most in-demand titles across the nine regions: One of the most interesting data points is that of unique demand. These are titles which have unique hold patterns by region and don’t necessarily see the same interest nation-wide. These are the titles worth exploring if you’re a reader looking to add more anti-racism books to your TBR. Beside each title is the region to which it is in unique demand. As tends to be the case with all Panorama Picks compilation, Hawaii leads the nation in unique demand. So what are the most popular and in unique demand anti-racism titles by region for spring 2020? Panorama Picks offers fifteen in each. California Great Lakes (Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan) Hawaii Midwest (Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin) Mountain and Plains (Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Wyoming) New Atlantic (Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia) New England (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont) Pacific Northwest (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington) Southeast (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia) Gonzalez points to the need for continued promotion and discussion of these titles, both regionally and nationally. “Hopefully, publishers and booksellers will look at these lists and see opportunities to make the current surge of interest in racial and social justice topics more than just a one-off marketing initiative,” he said. “There’s clearly an audience to nurture, not to mention the opportunity to be the cultural influencers so many publishers believe themselves to be.”
