Library reports show big visit spikes tied to Sunday hours and ballot drop boxes

Principal Librarian Andrea Hilliard reported May and June statistics to the board, saying physical-material circulation was largely flat while visits rose. "We resumed Sunday hours at the Cole and Dove locations," Hilliard said, and staff attributed part of the year-over-year increase to expanded weekend service. Hilliard told trustees the visits data showed "a double-digit increase in visits, up 16.4%" compared with the prior period cited in the report.

Hilliard said ballot drop boxes placed inside the library locations contributed to higher traffic around the election period. "I looked at the data for June 1 and June 2, and we had over 10,000 visits at our 3 libraries over those 2 days," she said. The registrar of voters "reported to us that over 17,000 ballots were collected out of those 3 drop boxes," Hilliard added.

Staff also noted that program attendance was down even as the library offered more sessions; program counts shifted because additional sessions spread attendance across offerings rather than producing large single-session audiences. Trustees asked no substantive follow-up questions during the report.

The board received the report with no public commenters on the item. Staff encouraged trustees and the public to review the narrative reports included in the meeting packet for full tables and month-by-month metrics.