Shorewood Library Receives High Marks in National Rankings
In its category, the village's library was ranked 77th nationally, second in the state and garnered the highest score of those ranked in Milwaukee County, in the Library Journal's 2012 standings.
Photos
Shorewood Public Library was ranked among the best in the country in its category and received the highest score among those rated in Milwaukee County, in the Library Journal's 2012 standings.
The Library Journal Index of Public Library Service annually compares U.S. public libraries based on the services they deliver. Libraries are divided into categories based on their expenditures.
Among the 1,372 libraries across the country in its category, Shorewood's ranks 77th, and second in Wisconsin.
The rankings are based on 2011 per capita statistics including circulation, visits, program attendance and public Internet computer use.
Shorewood has the highest circulation, or number of items checked out, per capita in Milwaukee County.
January will mark 10 years since the library has been in its renovated building. In the last year in the old building, there were 254,478 items borrowed. By the end of 2011, items borrowed had increased by 41 percent to 359,768, according to the library.
CowDung
8:36 am on Tuesday, December 18, 2012
I guess people in Shorewood are too cheap to buy their own books and internet service...
Absolutelyfabulous
6:31 pm on Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Dung-
I'm going to venture to guess that a lot of those items that were checked out are DVD's/multimedia of all sorts (movies, education, sports/exercise/language/travel,music, audiobooks etc) which could contribute to the high number because I find it very hard to believe that the Shorewood Library is averaging over 1,000 books a day being checked out let alone even having the capacity to hold such large numbers of items for people to take advantage of. Since anyone w/ a library card has access to all other Mke County libraries including the central one downtown, I'm sure there are a lot of interlibrary materials making their way to Shorewood as well. All one has to do is put in a request for a particular item and wait for it to be sent over to Shorewood to be available to check out.
I just checked to see if they had "50 Shades of Grey"..Read an excerpt and that's as far as I got. Absurd book, but seems to be rocking women of all ages. So, anyway, they not only offer the traditional book form, but also E-Book, Book on CD, Large Print and Audio Book. Now, multiply those options by how many books are out there or at least popular ones and there are a lot of options for checking out materials that may not be a traditional paper book. I love the Large Print options.
Gotta be able to keep those older readers in the loop for their steamy novels.
For the 2 copies available alone on CD there are 47 holds on the 1st returned of 20 copies available. Lots of traffic.
CowDung
6:49 pm on Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Then I guess the $8/month for Netflix is too much for them as well...
Absolutelyfabulous
6:56 pm on Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Dung-
I streamed Netflix for their $8 a month and it was GARBAGE. One bad, 3rd rate selection/option after another. Cancelled that. When you think about it, the MKE library system and all that it has to offer and in so many types of media is one hell of a resource all free and at ones fingertips. Much better than Netflix's $8 of streaming garbage a month.
Seriously, this is hysterical. It's Ellen DeGeneres doing an interpretive reading from a few selections of 50 Shades of Grey..If only the real thing had been even a fraction as entertaining.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on3JCwnwHbU
Rock Salt
1:50 pm on Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Does the circulation figure include interlibrary loan materials or from Shorewood's collection alone?
David Tatarowicz
6:09 pm on Tuesday, December 18, 2012
These kind of rankings often have more to do with how an institution fills out the paperwork --- how much time they put into it, and how they define the information requested, and how the methodology they use.
As AB FAB notes above --- there are probably not a thousand books per day being checked out --- and RS asks about the criteria used.
Any of us who have had to provide reports in the corporate world or respond to RFP's from any government entity, know that the devil is in the details, and the details are not freely coming !!
Beth Carey
1:08 pm on Thursday, December 20, 2012
Hi All - It's been a hectic week and I just now saw these comments. I am happy to provide any details. Counting check outs is simple: every time a barcode or tag is read, it counts as one check out. Yesterday, there were exactly 1,003 items checked out here at Shorewood. 322 items were media of some kind: dvd, audio book, compact disc/music. The remaining items were print. Of the 359,768 items checked out last year, 57,690 or about 16% were from libraries other than Shorewood. I took a quick look at November and the the highest hour of the month was from 4 to 5 November 20 when 210 items were checked out. If you haven't been here in some time - stop in! It is a very busy place.
Beth Carey
Director of Library Services
Joe Peterlin
7:51 pm on Sunday, December 23, 2012
Congratulations to Beth Carey and all of the fantastic staff at the Shorewood Library for running an efficient and self-sustaining operation. Thank you all! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Beth Carey
9:13 pm on Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Thanks Joe!
Beth