Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Summer's heating up at the library!
Patron site visits: 21,481 – up 16% from 2010
Computer logons: 2,644 – up 8% from 2010
Book circulation: 35,077 – up 4% from 2010
Program attendance: 2,656 - up 47% from 2010
Computer logons: 2,644 – up 8% from 2010
Book circulation: 35,077 – up 4% from 2010
Program attendance: 2,656 - up 47% from 2010
Summer fun is back at the Chambers County Library System and once again the heat’s not the only thing breaking records! Summer is definitely here and you can see it in our numbers, not to mention the worn out staff! Between waterslides, gators and space suits, the kids have been checking out tons of books to go along with the weekly program topics. Over 200 people signed up for new library cards in June, double the number from May. With the continued increase in program attendance, it’s caused us to host several programs outside the library in the local community buildings. Not the ideal situation but we’re grateful to have a place to go.
Teens were treated to programs that included tie dye t-shirts, recycled crafts, and banana jousting. Staff member La’Shebia Haskin did a program at Anahuac and Winnie for the teens on downloading audio books and music to iPods, MP3’s and other devices. Of course we can’t leave out the adults! For every 4 books, the adults can enter a raffle to win prizes – and so far we’ve had raffle cans overflowing with entries! And none of this would be possible without our wonderful sponsors and program underwriters. You can see all the sponsors on the link from our webpage: http://www.chambers.lib.tx.us/
Thanks to the County, we have 2 summer workers at each branch to help out with the events and also getting those 35,077 books back on the shelves. These workers are worth their weight in gold and we thank the Court for supplying the help. The kids definitely earn their money! We have another full schedule of activities for July, ending with end of summer parties the week of the 18th. Then we’re back in planning mode for the fall season.
Technical Librarian, Kathy Fielding attended a workshop on Adobe Photoshop to help hone her webmaster skills. Kathy is responsible for the library’s webpage and site visits steadily increase each month due to her work and effort put into the webpage and the fact more people have been checking our summer schedules online.
Assistant County Librarian Adrienne Cain and I attended the American Library Association’s (ALA) annual conference in New Orleans, Louisiana in June. This is the first time the national conference has been held this close to our area and we took advantage of going. ALA is similar to the state’s annual conference focusing on presentations and exhibitions drawing over 25,000 attendees from across the country. We spent our time attending programs on topics like social media, professional development, marketing, technology and the latest trends in the library world. As with all the conferences and programs we attend we came back inspired and will look where some of these ideas fit into the library’s mission.
Last summer we finally had our authentication software installed on all the public computers. As an add-on to this software we purchased Cassie SPOT which is a wireless network authentication and printing solution allowing laptop users the ability to print on any of the library’s public printers. Look for this feature in the next couple of months. We’re excited about this software and hope it proves as successful as the authentication.
Another new program finally available is Freegal, free downloadable music. Cardholders are allowed to download 3 songs each week, with their account resetting every Sunday at midnight. After a song is downloaded, it becomes theirs to keep. We’ve had the software up and running for about 3 weeks and as predicted, it’s becoming quite a popular service!
The Chambers County Library in Anahuac ended the month with a “Justin Bieber” program. Branch Librarian Aquilia De la Cruz hosted an event for the “tween” age by having a Justin Bieber impersonator sign autographs and pose for pictures. The event ended up being a huge success with over 50 girls screaming with Bieber Fever. Of course this is yet another draw for the library and we ended up with parents browsing, signing up for library cards and signing up for summer reading. Bring it on, July!
Year 2011 June
Books 26663
Vertical Files 0
Magazines 466
Newspapers 1
Permits 0
Total Print Circulation 27130
AudioCassettes 65
AudioCDs 414
Cassettes (Music) 7
CDs 150
CD-ROMs 4
DVDs 3554
Kits 38
Microforms 0
Optical Disks 1
Videotapes 236
Total A-V Circulation 4469
E-books 0
Equipment 51
Puzzles 1
Rooms, Meeting 17
Public Computer Logons 2644
Database Logons 507
Total Other Circulation 3220
Total Juv Circulation
Total Circulation 34819
Remote Logons 8990
Number of Juv Programs 15
Children at Juv Programs 1655
Adults at Juv Programs 714
Total at Juv Programs 2369
Number of Adult Programs 4
Total at Adult Programs 15
Computer Instruction 0
Number of YA Programs 13
Total at YA Programs 264
Number of Outreach programs 1
Children at outreach programs 4
Adults at outreach programs 4
Total at outreach programs 8
2656
Patron Visits to Library 21481
Site visits: Anahuac 7648
Site visits: Winnie 6043
Site visits: Mont Belvieu 7790
Interlibrary loans returned 117
Intralibrary loans to Anahuac 34
Intralibrary loans to Winnie 34
Intralibrary loans to Mt Belv. 37
Year 2010 June
Volunteer Service Hours 50.5
Hours Open for Patrons 642
Family Card Totals
Patron cards: Anahuac 1991
Patron cards: Winnie 2720
Patron cards: Mt Belvieu 3541
Patron cards: Blocked 947
Collection development:
Book titles added 261
Book titles withdrawn 0
Previous total 91877
New book title total 92138
Magazine titles added 3
Magazine titles withdrawn 0
Previous total 1553
New magazine title total 1556
Audio-visual titles added 0
Audio titles withdrawn 75
Previous total 8059
New audio-visual title total 7984
Other item titles added 6
Other item titles withdrawn 0
Previous total 1612
Other item title total 1618
Percentage/circ: Anahuac 31.32%
Percentage/circ: Winnie 27.97%
Percentage/circ: Mt Belvieu 40.72%
TexShare Cards Issued: 0
Reference question 187
