Posted on Tuesday, Sep 11, 2012
Located in the only UNESCO City of Literature in the United States, the Iowa City Public Library has long-served as a center for culture, education and community. This fiscal year (July 2011-June 2012) saw ICPL launch the Local Music Project, an innovative way to deliver local music content to Iowa City. The Library also strengthened its partnerships in the community by supporting the first growing season of the successful City Plaza Children’s Garden. ICPL brought Johnson County together for a first in the country public art show of the BookMarks gigantic book statues, expanded outreach programs to underserved members of the community and continues to find new ways to encourage lifelong learning for all ages and stages of the some 67,000 people who call Iowa City home.
By the numbers, the last fiscal year was another record-setting one:
• 68,827 cardholders
• 1,576,755 checkouts
• 764,911 visits
• 211,220 computer users
• 76,111 questions answered
• 62.9% of checkouts done by self-check
• 94.5% increase in eDownloads
ICPL has increased circulation to over 1.5 million again this year, offered new technology support, improved the look and feel of the library catalog and provided public access computers at Pepperwood Plaza in southeast Iowa City. The Library offered a variety of programs and displays from U.S. Olympic Wrestling to Charles Dickens. ICPL also strengthened partnerships and helped build a sense of community by being involved in the creation of a new children's literature festival sponsored by the City of Literature and other efforts. The Library worked this year to plan for improvements to the Library's building and services. This work begins this fall and is aimed at improving access and making the Library easier to use.
"This Library just keeps getting better," read a comment on Iowa City Public Library’s Facebook page in June. The Library's goals could be summed up in those six words. ICPL wants to be continually changing and improving to provide the very best library service to its community.
Come rediscover all your Library has to offer this year. The Library’s full annual report is available online at http://www.icpl.org/about/annual-report-12/. For more information on the Library’s fall renovation project, visit http://www.icpl.org/renovation/.
2012 Fact Sheet
POPULATION SERVED:
Iowa City 67,862
Rural Johnson County (by contract) 21,343
University Heights (by contract) 1,051
Hills (by contract) 703
CARDHOLDERS: 69,306
COLLECTIONS:
Circulating Books/eBooks: 191,266
Circulating Non-print Materials: 44,624
Print and Electronic Reference: 6,178
Periodicals and Newspapers: 372
Total collection size: 242,440
ANNUAL USERSHIP FIGURES:
Circulation: 1,576,755
Visits to the Library: 764,911
Information Requests: 76,111
Meeting Room Attendance: 26,993
Non-Library Meeting Room Use: 2103
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