How much do you use your public library?

So I was at the library for story time the other day with my kids....I realized that Dr. Tomer is absolutely right, a huge demographic of regular library users are Moms with their kids. Many of my Mom friends and I are at the local Gettysburg public library at least once or twice a week! They have great summer reading programs and lots of non-book activities for kids throughout the summer. While I was there I noticed a flier in the lobby titled "How libraries stack up: 2010" published by OCLC. It was a little piece of library advertising and it gave lots of stats on library use.

It was fascinating because the flier emphasized the features and services that the library provides outside of traditional book lending. Most of the stats discussed how much the library is used for career assistance or job-seeking help, trumpeting the fact that "Every day 300,000 Americans get job-seeking help at their public library." The flier also discussed the number of public libraries that provide free wireless Internet access, free technology classes and computer training, and the fact that 2.1 million DVDs are borrowed from public libraries.

As we were discussing in LIS 2000, some libraries are beginning to advertise themselves a bit, maybe still not as much of a full marketing campaign that could be done, but then again, are the resources and money there to carry out such a campaign? Hopefully some patrons are picking up this flier and taking note of the many services libraries can perform in their communities. I know that the Moms in my community know this about their library!