Economic skid sending more in state to libraries
Posted on Monday, December 1, 2008
RUSSELLVILLE — Phyllis Holt, her arms full of books, said she probably would finish reading the six novels in about a week and be ready for more.
If she bought that many new books, Holt easily could have been out more than $ 100. Instead, she stopped by the Pope County Library in Russellville and checked out the novels, mainly historical fiction.
“I used to buy a lot of books, but I don’t anymore. If I read six books in a week or week and a half, it would get expensive,” Holt said.
Indeed, the newly remodeled Russellville library and other county branches in Atkins, Dover and Hector saw an increase of 20, 200 visits from January through October of this year, compared with the corresponding period in 2007, library Director Judy Mays said.
The visitors were doing more than browsing. They checked out 201, 884 library materials during that period this year, compared with 181, 962 last year for an increase of almost 20, 000 items, Mays said.
Russellville’s library system isn’t alone. As high gas prices kept some people at home over the summer and the nation’s economic woes are keeping some Americans out of shop- ping lines, libraries across the country are busier than ever.
Americans visited public libraries nearly 1. 3 billion times and checked out more than 2 billion items in the past year, according to the Chicago-based American Library Association’s 2008 State of America’s Libraries Report.
The association said those numbers represent an increase of more than 10 percent in both checked-out items and library visits, compared with data from a national economic downturn in 2001.
The association reported that a Harris Poll taken in August found that 68 percent of Americans had a library card, up 5 percent from 2006.
The association released its report in late August, when gasoline prices were still above $ 3 in Arkansas, but librarians said this month that their business is still up.
Libraries always do more business during economic troubles, said Jim Rettig, association president and librarian at the University of Richmond in Virginia.
“It’s much more economical to rent a book than to go to Barnes & Noble or to go to Amazon and purchase it,” he said. “The same with videos.... You’ve already paid for [them ] with your tax support for the library.”
Further, Rettig said, “The public library is generally the only place you can go in and get free use of the computers,” something the growing number of unemployed Americans often need to prepare resumes and complete online job applications.
Nationally, the jobless rate rose from 6. 1 percent to 6. 5 percent in October, with the number of unemployed rising to 10. 1 million. Arkansas’ jobless rate rose by half a percentage point in October to 5. 4 percent.
In Russellville, Mays said the library typically has 130 visitors during the four hours it’s open on Saturdays.
“The last two Saturdays, we’ve gone to more than 200,” she said.
In Little Rock, the Central Arkansas Library System, which serves Pulaski and Perry counties, also is busier these days.
“Our circulation has been up every month this year over the same month in 2007,” spokesman Carrie Snodgrass said.
“I think the economy is a big reason,” she said. But the branches also have worked to improve the quality and variety of their free programs, which include puppet shows and guest speakers, she said.
Through the end of October, the library system has checked out 1. 76 million items compared with 1. 8 million items for all of 2007, Snodgrass said. Attendance already is nearing last year’s total of 1. 6 million. Through October this year, it was at 1. 54 million.
Likewise, the Palmyra, Pa., public library’s summer-reading program rose by 163 percent over the past year, according to the American Library Association’s report. In south Florida, a library patron who had been paying $ 60 a month for Internet service canceled it and began using the free service at the public library in Hollywood, Fla., the association said.
At the Howard County Library in Columbia, Md., visits to its six branches from July 1, 2007, to June 30, exceeded 2. 6 million, a 268 percent increase compared with past usage, the association reported.
In Conway, the Faulkner County Library’s summer-reading program for children increased from 8, 000 youngsters in 2007 to more than 10, 000 in 2008, library Director Ruth Voss said.
“People are not taking the vacations they used to, and they’re sticking close to home,” she said.
In Northwest Arkansas, the Fayetteville-based Washington County Library system has seen usage go “steadily up for the past number of years,” assistant director Steven Thomas said. “We’re going to exceed a million checkouts [this year ] for the first time ever.”
The Washington County system, which has eight libraries and does not include Fayetteville’s public library, saw 978, 000 items checked out in 2007. The county library system projects it will have checked out “somewhere between 1 million and 1, 100, 000” items by the end of this year, Thomas said.
“When the economy is more challenging, it’s one of many factors that lead people to look for inexpensive things to do,” Thomas said. Add a weak economy to what he considers a good library system and a rapidly growing county, and increased library use seems a given.
When people visit their hometown libraries for the first time, they may be surprised at the offerings, often far greater than those of generations past. Today’s libraries offer the likes of traditional books, graphic novels, Internet service, magazines and newspapers, DVD movies, books on tape or disc, music, yoga classes, book clubs, genealogy research materials and more.
The Central Arkansas Library System, for instance, even transfers movies from videotape to DVD at no cost during a special program on a pre-announced day, Snodgrass said.
Brittany Stroud, a University of Central Arkansas student, said she often uses a computer at the Conway library to do homework. Stroud, 18, also checks her social-networking accounts such as Facebook at the library rather than spend money for Internet service at home, she said.
Of course, not everyone is thinking about the economy when they go to the library.
Consider Warren Elsken, 18, who was in Russellville for Thanksgiving and decided to visit the local library. There, he could chat with friends on the Internet and enjoy the role-playing game World of Darkness.
Elsken said his family limits the time he can spend on the computer, so a visit to the library allows him to sneak in a little extra time.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
