Read all about it By James MitcheLl Organizations are always looking for ways to measure their success in operations. One of the best methods to make those measurements is to look at usage statistics. How is the organization being used and how often? We recently received from our regional office a breakdown of library statistics over the past five years. The statistics show that the library has seen a huge increase in usage over that period. Most of the credit goes to our staff and to our board both who have worked extremely hard to make the library better each year. Two key reasons they have been successful is their love for the library and their belief in it as a valuable community institution. Another key reason the library has been successful is because of the people throughout this community who have supported us and helped spread the word about these valuable resources available to everyone in Meade County. When trying to figure out whether we have been successful, there are a whole host of possible measures to weigh against our success. Of these there are three main indicators which serve as a good barometer to the library’s effectiveness. One of the most obvious indicators is circulation of materials. Five years ago, material circulation was around 57,000 items a year. Five years later that number is at 107,835. One of the reasons for this is the explosion of various media mediums available for checkout. The number of movies circulated each year has grown by more than 500 percent in the last five years. Music CDs weren’t even offered for check out five years ago and now they are second, behind movies, in non-print circulating items. People are also checking out computer games, Leap Pads, Leap Pads games, books on tape, books on CD, and more. This is not to say people are not reading because the increase in book circulation is up over 20,000 items a year from five years ago. This means while nonprint materials have soared, book use has also seen quite a healthy increase, even though it has not been quite as robust as that of multimedia items. Computer access is also a key indicator of the health of a library. Five years ago there were 11,695 one-hour computer sessions; the number of computer sessions for last year was 24,891 one-hour computer sessions. Conventional wisdom was that as computers became more ubiquitous, library use would dip. What has happened is with the increase of media available online, there has been more and more demand for broadband access. The library has extremely fast Internet connection rates and people can access media intensive sites with ease. Many of our computer users have both computers and Internet at home but come to the library for the speed of access that we can provide. Finally, the third major indicator is program attendance. Five years ago we had 3,936 people attend library sponsored programs, last year we had 11,546 people attend library programs. The library now has programs for all ages and has also partnered with several organizations to bring larger and more diverse programs to the county. Many of the programs are traditional library-type programs such as Story Hour. Others are new programs such as our Civil War reenactment. Some programs are done in partnership with various organizations such as our Summer Concert Series done in conjunction with the Meade County Museum and Arts Council. It was through valuable partnerships and innovative ideas of staff members that allowed the library to grow its attendance and meet the needs of the citizens of Meade County. We have only scratched the surface of potential of the library, and we feel confident that with the hard work of the staff and the support of the community,we will continue to make gains towards even greater expanded services and meeting the changing community needs.
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