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Numbers from the city library
Our city library certainly is a well-used facility. Nearly 37,000 patrons have walked through the door this year to date, and almost 2,800 library cards have been issued. Over one-third of these card holders live outside of the city of Hot Springs. Our library is mainly supported by city tax dollars, with the 2008 budget just over $201,000.
Libraries are not just books anymore. Besides the obvious library functions of books, this year there have been uses of computers (10,189), meeting room use (70), Study room use (45), and events (34) with 774 people in attendance. Also available for check out are audiobooks, DVDs, and magazines. In-house reading includes several daily newspapers. The Library can help provide Braille and talking books for patrons with limited vision.
Recently there was an article in The Star about the summer reading program. These 92 children read for a total of 54,000 minutes. This relates to almost 10 hours of reading time per child. Our Library promotes life-long reading habits starting with the toddler story time and continuing with programs for adults.
A staff of four full-time employees are available to help you learn and enjoy. Libraries promote literacy and are essential to education. If you haven’t visited our library recently, go check it out! Our staff is dedicated to making your experience positive, and the motto at the library is to not let anyone leave empty handed. Either leave with the book or product you came for, or leave with the promise the staff will do whatever they can to get your request filled. Libraries have librarians. Librarians are the ultimate information search engine - ask, and they will search!