St. Charles County, Missouri — St. Charles City-County Library, for the first time in a calendar year, surpassed one million digital items borrowed in 2023 through the Libby app. The millionth item being a copy of Magnolia magazine checked out on December 3. This milestone reflects the Library’s commitment to serving the community in new, innovative ways and the community’s support and need for the materials.
“Libraries are no longer simply about providing physical items,” said CEO Jason Kuhl. “As the way content is disseminated and consumed changes, we change with it. That's what keeps us relevant in the lives of those in our community, but it also comes with challenges that need to be answered in terms of budget, technology support, and strengthening partnerships with other libraries and organizations.”
Through different Library digital platforms including Libby, Kanopy, Hoopla, Flipster, and Tumblebooks, the community has 24/7 access to hundreds of thousands of resources like audiobooks, ebooks, and magazines. Through the reciprocal borrowing agreement with St. Louis Public and St. Louis County Libraries, St. Charles City-County Library can offer even more materials to cardholders.
“Technology continues to change how we consume information,” said Director of Collection Services, Carol Schrey. “More than 6.4 million items were borrowed from our library last year -- and of those more than 1.2 million checkouts were eMedia. Use of our digital products has grown more than 36% since the summer of 2020.”
The library offers favorite classics or the latest bestselling ebooks, audiobooks, and more to patrons through Libby and other digital material platforms. The most popular genre among library readers this year was Fiction, Literature, Romance, Thriller, and Suspense.
The top five audiobooks the community borrowed were Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, Spare by Prince Harry, A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Mass, Happy Place by Emily Henry, and A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Mass.
The top five ebooks library readers checked out were It Starts With Us by Colleen Hoover, Verity by Colleen Hoover, It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover, Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, and Happy Place by Emily Henry.