What a Year @ your library!

By Bill Nelson, Library Director

July 27 , 2005

Every June we look back over the past year to compare library statistics. I am overjoyed to report that our 38,615 library card holders checked out a whopping 514,951 items during the past 12 months. This represents an increase of 78,653 checkouts, or 18%! This is the first time that over 500,000 items checked out in a year!

What contributed to this increase? First, the citizens of Natrona County are re-discovering their library. Your staff has worked hard to improve outreach efforts and you have responded. Second, we have started displaying many new items so patrons can quickly find new materials. Third, the library’s collection budget increased to average Wyoming levels, thanks to your support of the One-Cent optional tax. This has enabled us to purchase new items of interest to our community.

Your staff daily tries to go the “extra mile” to serve you with a smile. They responded magnificently with added attention to customer service in general, many new events, and collection improvements to better serve you. After all, serving the community is why we are here. So without further ado, here are some results from the past year:

• 38,615 Natrona County residents have library cards. That's an increase of 10% from last year when 35,013 held cards. Stated another way, over half the people living in Natrona County have a public library card. Nevertheless, our goal is for every person in Natrona County to have a card!
• The Library circulated 514,951 items in the past year and hosted 284,568 patron visits. That averages out to about 1,700 checkouts and 950 patron visits daily. On average, each Natrona County Public Library cardholder checked out over 13 items in the past year. The number of patron visits increased 8%.
• The Library's webpage received over 135,000 hits last year. Did you know you can reserve, renew and initiate inter-library loans from this informative page, www.natronacountylibrary.org? Give us a call if you would like assistance in using this convenient service.
• Your library staff helped answer more than 95,000 questions last year (e.g., business, genealogy, consumer health, student projects, literature, and history). If you have a question, call or visit your highly skilled "information guides" throughout the library.
• Over 20,000 children attended children's programs during the past year. This included our popular classroom “Book Talk” programs, summer reading, and traditional storytime events. Reading to your young children and having them see you read regularly is an important method to build early literacy skills. NCPL’s children's storytime and storytelling are also great ways to reinforce, encourage, or introduce youngsters to the “magic” of stories and reading.
• Over 200 people attended the library’s free computer classes this year. We try to offer four classes each month and you can sign-up by calling the Reference Desk at 237-4935 ext 125.

Thank you for your patronage this past year. With your help, I’m confident we will continue to develop new ways to bring world class library service to the wonderful people of Natrona County.

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