A Day in the Life of the Ledyard Public Libraries

Someone in a library in New Jersey apparently came up with the idea of snapshot day. It worked. So someone in a library in Connecticut heard about it and said let's do snapshot day in Connecticut. So we did. Libraries all over the state, took pictures and collected statistics for one day in the third week of February. What else did we have to do? February is a pretty dull month anyway. Ground Hog in the beginning, hearts in the middle and then it is gone in a quick 28 days! What librarians found, however, is quite amazing. People use libraries. What a concept! Nearly 100,000 items were checked out of libraries in Connecticut in one day. Over 80,000 people walked in the door, for one reason or another. Over 12,000 came to use a computer. So much for the theory that libraries will die because everyone will get all they need from a home computer.

What does a day in the life of the Ledyard Public Libraries look like? On Tuesday, February 18, 274 people visited the Bill and Gales Ferry Libraries. They checked out over 550 items. Judging from that, our patrons check out two items per visit on average. Nearly 50 people came to the libraries to use the computers. Over 45 children came for story times. Some came to read the newspaper or relax with a magazine and a cup of coffee. These things happen at your Ledyard Public Libraries every day. And that doesn't count all the people sitting at home or work taking advantage of the resources on the library web page. They are reserving items through the library catalog or state library catalog (request), learning how to repair their car using the Chilton's data base or finding out about washing machines on Consumer Reports on line.

A day in the life of Ledyard Public Libraries is many things to many people. And we are very happy to be here to serve your needs.