Coshocton County District Library saw increase in patrons and use of services in 2023
COSHOCTON − The Coshocton County District Library remains a vibrant part of the community with plenty of youth and families attending programs and using library resources, digitally and in-person.
The last year was marked by a name change for the library system. It was announced in August it would start using the legal name it's had since 1950. The entity started out as the Coshocton Public Library in 1904 as it was to serve the city population. However, it was later designated to serve the entire county.
Director Jennifer Austin said it was simpler to start using the legal name for all functions and the library system is still in transition. She said they are making name changes as new items, like stationary and business cards, are ordered while online switches have been made.
Austin said the name alteration hasn't made much of a difference to patrons. Use of library resources has remained strong with digital use still on the rise in 2023. However, Austin believes most are surprised by how vibrant use of physical media still is. This not only includes books, but unique items such as cornhole sets and pickleball equipment.
"You can find anything on the internet and that's the problem. Not everything is credible, not everything is authoritative. It has to be vetted out," Austin said on the value of the library. "If you're using a library resource, whether it's print or digital, we're evaluating the content before it goes into the collection. That way you know you're getting reliable resources."
More than 120,000 people visited the library in 2023, up 11% from 2022. Physical circulation was up 8.5% from 2022 with overall library usage up more than 37%, including digital use. Austin credits the rise with adding new digital services. In the past year, this included expanding Value Line for stock market research and a newspaper index through ProQuest.
"Digital just continues to explode. I've been waiting for it to plateau and I honestly thought it would in 2021, because in 2020 with the pandemic and all the closures, people used digital services more and we were really able to promote our digital services during that time," Austin said. "We're still continuing to see those services used more and more."
Yet, plenty of people are still coming into the library and some of that is connected to educational programs. This ranges from story times for young children, book clubs for all ages and special presentations ranging from a showing of World War II memorabilia by Bill Given to an examination of local serial killer Cletus Reese by author Mark Sebastian Jordan.
A lot of programs are collaborations with other local entities and individuals. Overall, the library had more than 200 public partners for offering of services, programs or information.
Leonard Hayhurst is a community content coordinator and general news reporter for the Coshocton Tribune with more than 15 years of local journalism experience and multiple awards from the Ohio Associated Press. He can be reached at 740-295-3417 or llhayhur@coshoctontribune.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @llhayhurst.
By the numbers for 2023
● 357,549 items borrowed − 251,226 physical items and 106,323 digital items
● 105,928 local items available with more than 8.1 million consortium items and digital items are 706,424 through OverDrive and 1.5 million items via Hoopla
● 120,725 in-person visitors and 3,319 digital visitors
● 14,729 cardholders
● 21,342 reference questions answered
● 7,919 internet sessions and 8,910 wireless internet users
● 726 programs offered with 12,418 total in attendance for adults, teens and children
● 835 volunteer hours
This article originally appeared on Coshocton Tribune: Coshocton County District Library saw increased activity in 2023
