Check This Out! Busy, Busy Libraries

Libraries are not the hushed mazes of books they once were. Movies, music, and audio books fill shelves, too. And patrons use computers to access e-books, databases, or browse the Internet. The state of the economy the last few years, in fact, has made the local library’s access to the Internet and job resources more crucial (and busier) than ever.

There are many ways to measure library activity– including everything from door counts to questions asked. For today’s list, we’ve chosen circulation (i.e., the number of items checked out) as our ruler. We pulled the statistics for 349 public library locations on Washington, sorted them by check out volume, and listed the top 30 below. The big library in downtown Seattle (exterior shown at right) is tops. No surprise there. But some of the other library branches may surprise you.

You might notice several King County Library System locations on the list. In the aggregate, KCLS libraries checked out nearly 21.8 million items in 2011.  Similarly, all the branches in Seattle finished a distant second with “only” 11.6 million.

BUSIEST PUBLIC LIBRARY BRANCHES IN WASHINGTON STATE, 2011

NOTE:  Links to the various library systems are attached to the listings of the largest branch within each system.

PHOTO © Steve Campion

DATA SOURCE: Washington Public Library Statistics, Washington State Library

November 9th, 2012