The Liberry

This past week at the library, we have been closed to the public so we could catch up on inventory, shifting books around, printing legible spine labels, processing new DVDs and all sorts of other things. Yesterday we had the annual Volunteer Appreciation Dinner. During the presentation we learned the following facts about our little library. Now we all realize that, although the normal population of our service area is under 10,000 people, we get lots of tourists through here in the summer. Of course, they mainly use only the computers, since they do not have library cards for our area. And I also realize that we are one of only 250 libraries nation-wide (yes, the entire United States) that is ranked as a Star Library by the American Library Association. (This is our third year in a row! We are one of four in Wisconsin.) So we are better than average. But just to give you an idea of the use that a public library gets these days ...

1) In 2009 1,722 residents applied for library cards. (Again, note that our total service area population -- the folks who can actually obtain a card -- is about 10,000.)

2) 7,965 residents now have library cards and identify Kilbourn Public Library as their main library. If you have a card but go without using it for a couple of years, you are removed from the tabulation, so these are folks who use the library at least occasionally.

3) Over 1,100 children participated in the 2009 Summer Library Reading Program. There is a complicated formula to figure this out, but the folks who study these things, say that this amounts to over a million dollars in value to the community. Kids who read in the summer maintain their level of reading proficiency, meaning teachers do not have to take as much time catching them back up in the fall. By the end of elementary school, summer readers are about two years ahead of those who do not read in the summer. And those non-readers have a very hard time ever catching up in any of their courses, because no matter what you study, even math and computers, you have to be able to READ. And the summer reading programs at the library have no direct fees attached.

4) Residents checked out over 100,000 items from our library in 2009, an increase of more than 7% over 2008.

5) Our library put on over 270 special programs in 2009, 85 for adults and 185 for children. Again, there was no charge to participate in these programs, and about 1,500 adults and almost 3,000 children took part.

Although the Bookmobile is not considered or counted as a special program, I note that the Bookmobile annually makes over 1,200 visits to day care centers and elementary schools, and over 1,200 visits to nursing homes and housing for the elderly as well.

6) Our public access computers were used over 28,000 times in 2009. More and more people using our computers are doing so to find jobs or to fill out job applications that they can only do online. Many of these people do not have their own computers, and even those who do in this rural area, only have dial-up connections, which make it impossible for them to download the information they need or to complete the application process from home.

7) In Wisconsin, studies indicate that, for every dollar SPENT on public libraries (not including school or university libraries), residents get a return of over four dollars. So a great investment!

And, of course, it pays my salary and, as the L'Oreal folks say, "I'm worth it!"