@your library Volume XXVIII Number Three
A NEWSLETTER OF
Spring 2021
Library meets shifting material demand by Rachel Organist
A
t a recent meeting of the Friends Board, one topic of discussion was how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected circulation of library items and how patrons use the library. For example, we wondered whether less frequent library visits and the inability to browse have resulted in users hanging on to individual items for a longer period of time. I reached out to Sarah Peterson, the library’s Systemwide Products Director, to find out more about what’s been happening with items in the library’s collection over the past year. While the library doesn’t have a way to capture data on how long users are keeping items, there are numerous other metrics tracked throughout the year that paint a picture of library use during the pandemic and ways the library collection has pivoted to keep up with our changing times. Peterson explained that when it first became clear that normal operations couldn’t safely continue, an ordering freeze was placed on new physical items for the collection. Instead, spending was shifted to digital items, with an emphasis on children’s collections items to help families learn and have fun together. The library resumed ordering physical items when curbside service started up again. According to the library’s 2020 Fast Facts publication, the collection currently includes more than a million owned items. 52% of these are adult physical items, 38% are children’s physical items, and 10% are digital items, including eBooks and eAudiobooks. This represents an additional 20,000 owned digital items in the library’s collection compared to 2019! In addition, the library offers users access to many subscription eMaterials, including more than 650,000 eBooks and eAudiobooks. It’s not surprising that digital circulation in 2020 increased 16% over the previous year, as our library use has shifted online just like many other aspects of our lives.
INSIDE:
The library was also able to take advantage of special pandemic
President's Podium: Spring: Sunshine on the horizon page 2
Rain, sleet or snow: Physical materials get delivered around the library system daily, all while use of digital materials like eBooks and eAudiobooks are on the rise during the pandemic. offers from various electronic resource providers. As a sometime amateur genealogist myself, I was particularly excited to hear the library now offers access to Ancestry.com’s genealogical databases from users’ home computers, and share Peterson’s hopes that this perk will be continued in the future. For the link to log in to this remote database, visit www.tulsalibrary.org/ ancestry-library-edition-0. For those who continue to prefer curbside pickup of physical items to eBooks, staff have created book bundles on various topics to better serve patrons who can’t browse. I can personally vouch for the selections staff have made for me based on my other holds—they do a great job! Craft kits are another fun library offering for families to do together. To see which craft kits are available this month, visit events.tulsalibrary.org/events and use the Event Type filter to show “DIY Make or Crafts” events. With curbside circulation of over 700,000 and total digital circulation of over 1.7 million in 2020, it’s clear the library continues to fulfill its mission of serving as many users as possible even through the challenging circumstances of the coronavirus pandemic. There are many exciting ways Friends can enjoy library resources, even as a return to browsing the stacks remains in our future.
First Book program resumes page 3
Annual Report: 2020 at our libraries page 5
Summer Reading Program kicks off June 1 page 6