Chris McArdle Rojo

February 12 , 2010

I was thinking I’d take this opportunity to, as they say, toot our own horn at the La Crosse County Library.  I had every intention to take all the credit for a fabulous 2009 at our locations in Bangor, Campbell, Holmen, Onalaska and West Salem; but as I finish up our annual report to the State Department of Public Instruction, I realize it’s our users who deserve all the kudos and credit!  It probably has as much to say about the economic atmosphere we all struggled through in 2009 as does about the love of libraries in general, but La Crosse County Library is closing the books on an absolutely banner year of utilization of our area libraries in 2009 by the community members who make use of our services.

For the first time in history, La Crosse County Library reached and knocked right over the 400,000 mark for total items checked out!  Despite Onalaska being completely closed last year until February 11th for final construction, West Salem closed on and off in January ‘09 with flood clean-up, and Holmen closed for a week in March for new carpet, our loyal users checked out a whopping 440,781 items; up 11% from our previous record of 398,098 in 2008!  Of course, it’s not all about check-out!  For those of you who visit our hard working staff regularly, you might have noticed their attempts to say on top of the items coming back in the door too!  That number totaled 465,464 items!  Of course, not all of those check-ins immediately go back to our own shelves; a good portion of them go right into delivery bins and move all over the region to fill requests.  On top of checking out more than 440,000 items right across our counters, we loaned another 46,245 items to other libraries in the State! 

Wait, didn’t I say it’s not all about check-out!  Many of our dedicated users visit us on a regular basis and we don’t always manage to catch their interest with the latest novel or newest DVD release to check-out.  None the less, they still rely heavily on us for access.  Public computer use at all five locations in 2009 finished up at 48,396 uses!  Despite all those closings I mentioned, that beats out 2008’s number of 33,852 by 42%!  2009 brought 1,911 brand new library card users through the doors; doors that counted 285,282 visitors!  We can only hope, if you’re still not a card carrying member of the Winding Rivers Library System, that you’ll add to our 2010 statistics as soon as possible!

2010 looks to be another grand year and with 1,879 children registering for our Summer Reading Program last year and 6,038 in attendance at our Summer Reading events, I can’t imagine what kind of numbers our 2010 "Sportacular" theme will bring!  For those of you who’d like to put 2009 in the past and get on with 2010, I’ll finally let the year go, but not without extending our deepest gratitude for your continued support and use of the La Crosse County Library!

To find out how you can add to our 2010 use, visit one of our locations in Bangor, Campbell, Holmen, Onalaska or West Salem, check us out on-line at www.lacrossecountylibrary.org or call us at the Administrative Center in Holmen at 526-9600.

A Letter From the Director

(Continued from the Home page)

According to one recent survey, 66% of adult Americans use a library at least once per year for leisure, reference or self-improvement. School assignments, hobbies and programs attract a large percentage of children and young adults. Be sure to inquire about our program calendar and events.

In La Crosse County there are five libraries located in Bangor, Campbell (French Island), Holmen, Onalaska, and West Salem which are supported by people who live outside the city of La Crosse.

I invite you to familiarize yourself with the materials you may borrow including new best sellers, magazines, videos & DVDs, music CDs, computer software packages, Family Fun Bags and puppets. We hope, too, that you will utilize information resources including newspapers and public Internet access. Our staff is always available to assist you with any of our resources.

On behalf of the La Crosse County Library we sincerely hope that you will take advantage of all the materials and services that will be useful to you.

Chris McArdle Rojo
La Crosse County Library Director