The Library Board agenda for tomorrow’s meeting (16 October) reports that in September 2024 the library had 22,935 members and more than a quarter -  5,830 - come from out-of-town. 

17,105 members are Newmarket residents. This is the smallest membership in a decade – perhaps longer. (Library agendas going back to 2014 are posted on-line by the Town). 

Where have all the Newmarket members gone?

Exploded

It is a different story for the out-of-towners whose numbers have exploded in recent years.

Library membership is now open to all Ontario residents.

We now have the highest number of out-of-town members in a decade. I am left wondering where they come from and what they borrow. 

Hoopla costs money but it's free to members

Borrowing movies on-line via Hoopla, for example, costs the Library money. Could our tax dollars be subsidizing movie buffs in Sarnia or Sudbury? I don’t know the answer to that one but it is a question the Board could ask at its meeting tomorrow.

Detailed statistical data on Library usage last went to the Board on 15 February 2023. It covered the 2022 calendar year. 

The full range of Library usage statistics was not collected in 2023 but we do have figures for 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Selective

In March 2024 the Board considered its “Report to the Community 2023” which was then presented to Town councillors the following month. Given the format, this report was inevitably highly selective.

In the absence of comprehensive data for 2023, the Board made do with snapshots presenting data in a dramatic way but without context. In the same way, in "By the Numbers 2024" we learn that $3,400,518 was the amount saved by all library users borrowing items in the year to date (September 2024). That sounds pretty impressive to me. But we have no way of comparing it with previous years. 

We don’t have the number of items borrowed by category that would allow us to compare borrowing behaviour with earlier years and to spot trends. That’s why the Library routinely collected this information in the past.

Membership by Ward

All that being the case, we now have Library membership by ward – something that councillors have repeatedly requested. And this is a big step forward.

The figures capture Library membership in the Town’s seven wards in September 2024. The Chief Executive, Tracy Munusami, has figures for 2022 so it should be the work of moments for her to compare membership by ward between these dates and to see if the Library’s much touted outreach work is making a difference in underserved areas of Town and is being reflected in new members.

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