Mighty Twig Library Reports 18,000 Visitors in Six Months
Evanston's south-side storefront library, The Mighty Twig, reported a handful of statistics to tell the their "story of success."
The Evanston Public Library Friend’s experimental storefront library dubbed The Mighty Twig, 900 Chicago Ave., opened just over seven months ago, on March 26.
In the Friend’s October newsletter, the group listed statistics that they say “tell The Mighty Twig’s story of success.”
According to the Friend’s, through six months the Twig has had 18,017 visitors, 3,481 computer users, 2,591 toddlers at story time, 241 Summer Reading Game players, 509 children check out 6,062 books and a total of 15,297 free books distributed across Evanston.
The storefront library was created to fill the void left when the Evanston Public Library’s South Branch closed last February, and is located less than a block south of the previous branch location.
Though the Twig currently has no official affiliation with the Evanston Public Library system, at Wednesday night’s Evanston Public Library Board of Trustees meeting, the group discussed the possibility of making the Twig an authorized book drop, making it easier for residents on Evanston’s south side to return library materials.
Friends member Marcia Mahoney said that the Twig currently acts as an unintentional, unofficial book drop, as Evanstonians often accidentally return Evanston Public Library books to the storefront, despite large signs inside the Twig stating that this should not be done.
Board members were split over whether the Twig should become an official book drop location. The motion will be voted on at the library board’s Nov. 9 meeting.
TomH
10:58 pm on Friday, October 28, 2011
This is a great demonstration of what a privatized branch library can be. The north branch should follow suit and unhook itself from the Evanston Public Library as well, to become a privatized user-supported service, as should any other branch libraries planned for other areas around town. This way, taxpayers can focus on supporting the main library fully.
Lori Keenan
10:39 am on Thursday, November 3, 2011
Tom - it would seem that with this much demand for branches, maybe the library board should re-evaluate its system of delivery, stop focusing so much on Main (which is inconvenient and underutilized by many areas/demographics of our community) and start properly funding a model that delivers the greatest amount of services to the greatest number of people. Imagine: Twig West. This model has shown a mighty and efficient use of funds (less than $50k budget for the build-out, rent and operation annually) and highly successful usage.
jim
12:20 pm on Saturday, October 29, 2011
sure sounds like a lot of people for six months
cheryl chamberlain
9:28 pm on Sunday, November 6, 2011
Fred, if you take the overall number of 18,017 and divide it by the number of operating days, it averages out to 133.4 people per day -- a very realistic number when you break it down that way.