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• Busy places
• The population of many rural areas is going down, and bookstores in larger areas have closed, which might lead a person to guess that rural libraries have fewer patrons than they used to.
• That's not what's actually happened.
• "The number of people using them has gone up," Brunskill said.
• In 2011, 23,000 patrons came through the door of the Britton library--impressive for a county with a population of about 4,600. (Each visit is counted separately, so some of those are the same person a number of times.)
• Hensely said the number of patrons at the Clark library has gone up lately. "We've had more kids coming in since school started and I've been doing regular story times," she said.
• Another factor is that the world expects people to have online access, so if they don't have Internet at home the library serves that need. For example, people looking for jobs search for openings online, and many employers prefer online applications now, Brunskill said.
• Peterson added that as people manage their own budgets and see the cost of books and other media rising, they often opt to check out books or DVDs from the library instead of purchasing them.
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