Cranbury Forum | Bulletin | Info Sharing :: Topic review - 2008 Annual Report of the Cranbury Public Library

Guest

Apparently, the state requires that the numbers be reported a certain way and that is the reason for the wording. However, 60,000 visits or people is certainly an impressive figure.

Guest

I think the number is right, the statement is worded badly. It should be 60,000 visits to the library were logged. By adding the word people it causes an unintended consequence of people thinking the library is inflating numbers.

Guest

Cranbury has about 4000 residents. If you divide the 60,000 by 4000 that would be 15 visits a year. Some residents visit the library several times a week. Some residents don't use the library at all. However, think of the after school crowd. They are often there every day all week long. I think this number sounds realistic. Also, people who work in Cranbury can use the library.

How do they do the Math?

How do they count visitors? 60k sounds very high.

Guest

The Public Library counts the after school children, not the school children during the day when they are school library users.

Guest

I believe you are correct that they are counting visits. Moreover, if the library is open 300 days a year. This would break down to 200 visits a day. I believe they are counting schoolchildren as visitors to the public library.

Guest

Considering our town's population, I would hazard many of those are multiple visitors (20x our population visited the library).

info

In 2008 61,267 people visited the library. The
library staff answered 5,361 reference questions.
A total of 38,489 items were checked out and
9,235 people used materials while in the library

http://www.cranburypubliclibrary.org/Annual_Report_2008.pdf