Increased program attendance highlights Brodhead library in 2018

DAN MOELLER PHOTO The Independent-Register
This year the Brodhead library is offering educational kits for children to take home and play with. Here are some of the items, which will be available.

By Dan Moeller , CORRESPONDENT –

“We did a lot in 2018,” Brodhead library director Angela Noel said last week in accessing the library’s year.

One of the biggest efforts the library has been making in recent years is to increase programs and program attendance and that continued last year, she said. The library offered 229 programs that were attended by 5,846 patrons, a 26 percent increase over 2017.

“The number of programs has been going up but are kind of leveling off to what we can manage with the number of staff we have,” said Noel. The library held a little more than 200 library programs in 2017. “I think we are getting better at offering programs that people are getting excited about and want to come to,” she said.

In another service offered by the library, internet usage continues to be high. The library received just over 44,000 visits in 2018 but it provided more than 20,000 wireless internet connections.     “More than half of our visitors coming to the library are accessing the internet at some time,” Noel said. There are internet access issues in the county and the library seems to help solve those issues “in some way.” People, said Noel, “are still relying on the library for internet in a great way.”

Pick up the Jan. 16th print edition for full story….