By Holly Green
Rising numbers at the Huntsville Public Library show that the Huntsville community continues to value the services of its public library.
Statistics from the 2008 fiscal year report increases in library circulation, visitors, programs and program attendance from last fiscal year.
City librarian Linda Dodson said the library continues to be there for its patrons.
“What the statistics show is that people are using the library more than ever,” she said. “With the economy the way it is, you can’t buy books like you used to, and you’re thinking, ‘Where can you cut money?’
“The library has always been there in those tough times. When you come to the library, there’s typically a lot of people around. We’ve always had a pretty good turnout if you look at the numbers.”
Dodson said 2005 was a banner year for the library followed by a small decrease in 2007 and now an increase in 2008.
In 2008, circulation numbers are up 13.4 percent with a total of 84,598 — nearly 10,000 more than 2007.
Visitors are up 12.7 percent increasing from 105,992 to 119,437.
The library also added nine programs this year, totaling 98 various programs for both adults and children.
Program attendance numbers are up 4.7 percent and Dodson, who’s been at the library six years, said although it seems like a small increase, 2008 has been “the best year.”
“You know, it goes up and down,” she said. “But when you start looking at the numbers, this is the best year ... people are coming to the library.
“Some of the things that make a difference in people’s lives — they’re coming here to seek those services at the library and that’s pretty neat.”
Dodson attributes the increases to several recent changes at the library, including the hire of new children’s coordinator Kim Mason, promotion of Denise Tilson with public services, interlibrary loan and adult programming, performances by the Huntsville Area Rhetoric Team, local media support and the DVD collection.
“Kim has made some wonderful changes and brought in fresh ideas,” she said. “She has improved attendance at pre-k story hour ... and the Texas Summer Reading Club has been pretty amazing.
“Denise has also increased adult programming. We had a class on African-American genealogy which brought in more people to our Genealogy Lock-In.”
Dodson said her job is to “keep the library going,” and her staff is vital for this task.
“Our staff is wonderful,” she said. “No matter what task you give to them, they tackle it and make it a success. They always pull together and make it happen.”
Ann Holder, director of library services at Sam Houston State University, said she was impressed to see the public library reports.
“These statistics are something the community should be very proud of,” she said. “I would love to look at the university’s numbers and see these kinds of increases.”
Holder said the idea that libraries are losing out to the Internet is simply not true.
“The statistics show that the numbers at libraries are up,” she said. “Even before the economic turn down and before gas prices went up, people were turning to public libraries.”
