February is National Library Lover’s Month and what better way to highlight our public libraries' importance than by sharing some statistics showing how well loved and used our libraries are?  In 2016 Michigan’s public libraries circulated over 77 million pieces of content, offered over 34 million physical items for checkout and thanks to many of our public libraries participating in digital consortiums, a rapidly rising inventory of digital items that library patrons can access using their mobile devices, eReaders and personal computers. 

However, libraries are not only about accessing content. During the same timeframe Michiganders were offered 146,000 different enrichment opportunities covering everything from children’s story time, author talks and job skill programs to musical events, local history programs, family movie nights, technology petting zoos and much more.  We took advantage of this by attending these enrichment opportunities over 3.5 million times. 

In addition, over 237,000 children and teens took advantage of the many Summer Reading programs offered at their local libraries and put a crimp in their summer slide.  We also tapped into our library’s technology services by using library computers 9 million times, using our library’s free wifi almost 8 million times and tested the knowledge of our local library’s staff by asking over 8 million questions. 

With all this use it’s clear, Michiganders love their libraries and continue to use them in many different ways.

Brought to you by the MeL Team.

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