Value Added Content

I was never very fond of (nor good at) math during my school days.  One could say it's the reason I've chosen to surround myself with books for a living.  But numbers are a very important factor in measuring the very lifeblood of the public library.  How many programs did we offer?  How many people came?  Is this better or worse than last year?  Last month?  How much better or worse?  How many items did we circulate?  How many do we own?

I adore numbers now!

I was thinking about value the other day.  As in, what is the monetary value of what we offer our community?  Our collection contains approximately 25,000 items.  If you estimate a value per item of $20 (which is low-balling it), we offer a half-million dollars worth of items to our community at any one time.  On a personal basis, if a person checked out the maximum 25 items, and did this every week for a year, they would have checked out $26,000 worth of materials.  Or, in other words, if they had wanted to purchase all of those items for their personal collection, that's how much money it would have taken them to do it.

By the end of 2014, we will have circulated somewhere around 110,000 items for the year.  At $20 per item estimate, that is over $2.1 million of value we brought to the community.  We have an annual acquisitions budget of $80,000 - or 26 times less than the circulation value to our community.

Granted, some items may circulate just a couple times in the year.  Some may circulate not at all.  That is why we are constantly evaluating our collection and weeding under performing items.  On the flip side, some items will circulate dozens of times in a year.  The hottest new movies, for example, can average one checkout per week all year long.  So, 52 circulations for an item that cost us $20.  The total value on that $20 investment is $1,040.

It's popular in the media to talk about the value of libraries and the sustainability of the current library model, as if the very existence of libraries is somehow tied to the popularity of the printed word.  And the caveat to all of this talk of value is that, were all of the libraries in Carroll County to suddenly vanish and no other alternatives took their places, would our patrons literally spend $2.1 million on the items they get from us for free?  Probably not.  A portion of it, but not the entire thing.  Many people would simply do without.  But the point is, they don't have to.

And that is the enduring value of libraries.  Communities need a repository for the informational and entertainment materials that they cannot afford to purchase for themselves.  They need a place where they can safely be exposed to ideas and not be judged for their interests.  And that is something that will never go out of style.

Thunder Biscuits

I have a special connection with all of the different collections housed within the library, but here's a secret: I like all of them, I respect most of them, and I absolutely adore a few of them.  One of those objects of my adoration is the library's music collection.  We recently did a little rearranging to open up the area just inside the front entrance and to give the music collection a little room to breathe (not to mention make it easier to browse).

It's a tough era for CDs.  I'll admit it.  CD sales have plummeted every year for the last several years, and many people exist in a purely digital soundscape, or have gone the other direction and are rediscovering vinyl.  CDs are not sexy.  But they are still a great way to possess actual physical copies of music, and lend them to the public (although we do have a pretty spiffy digital music library as well - did you know?).

One of my greatest self-imposed challenges is to continually strive to fill the library with items that will surprise and delight our patrons.  I love overhearing someone say, "Wow, what?  No way!" when they stumble across something unexpected.  I try to challenge people's ideas of what a library is and the types of materials/services that can be found there, and the CD collection is a sort of microcosm of that aspiration.

Dig deep and you'll find everything from country to rap, metal to jazz, rock to standup comedy to opera and classical.  Old stuff.  New stuff.  The hottest hits of today and the classics that form the foundation for all modern popular music.  Not all of it will be to everyone's tastes, but that's the beauty of a public library - it doesn't cost anything to try something new!

Spare a minute on your next visit to dig into our music collection - you may be surprised by what you find there!