Recent circumstances have spurred my curiosity as to how people’s usage of the library had changed throughout the progression of the pandemic. Have things more or less returned to status quo, or was there perhaps a shift to more digital resource usage that didn’t require in-person visits? One resource I found, the annual Oregon Public Library Reports, helped me explore that question. Using that information, I assembled a quick Tableau Public dashboard focusing on yearly library services utilization over the 2019-2023 fiscal years for a network of Oregon libraries, the Washington County Cooperative Library System. This was, in part, to focus on a manageable subset of libraries, such that we could look at individual libraries to see if trends were consistent or if the data showed strange artifacts. For example, one of the libraries in the network, West Slope, was missing information for the 2019 fiscal year and underwent renovation for seven months of the 2021 fiscal year, so I omitted that library to better preserve larger-scale trends, though other libraries underwent renovations or extended closures as well. While, I didn’t run any formal statistical analyses, I will detail my observations for the 12 remaining WCCLS libraries below.
Background Data
Just to provide a little background and sense of scale, it would be helpful to know the 12 chosen libraries report serving a population of 595,938, with 418,625 registered users, as of the June 30, 2023. Sizes range from Banks Library’s 2,667 registered users to Hillsboro Public’s 106,306. However, as library card applications are taken at each individual library, there is likely some overlap in users across them. Overall, these libraries hosted almost 3.8 million visits in the fiscal year before the pandemic. Once the pandemic started, they closed for 14-15 weeks to end the 2020 fiscal year, and anywhere from 14 weeks for Hillsboro to all 52 weeks for Garden Home in the subsequent year. Weighted by service population, that is a drop in service weeks of 30% and 58%, respectively. But by the 2022 fiscal year, only a maximum of 2 weeks were closed for COVID-related reasons.
Observations
With only five data points, I didn’t conduct a formal statistical analysis, and merely focused on observable trends. The first one is that general usage, for the most part, reached its trough during the first full fiscal year under the pandemic, 2020-2021, with recorded visits dropping 87% from the pre-COVID 2018-2019 fiscal year two years prior. The drop in circulation of physical materials was less at approximately 53%. The impact was even more pronounced for non-material services, as the use of wireless access or library-owned computers for internet dropped 94% and 96%, respectively. Interactions with librarians through the reference desk dropped to less than a quarter of its pre-pandemic volume.
Given the lack of physical library access, it could be assumed that electronic materials might show increases during this period given their relative ease of access. And the increase in new registrations of 74% during 2019-2020 fiscal year imply a broader interest in access to electronic materials during the lockdown period when other avenues of diversion were not available. But website visits were down slightly for the first two pandemic-influenced fiscal years and only remained marginally higher in the last year of the data period. Electronic content did see more use, however, jumping up an extra 35% for the first full year of the pandemic, and increasing to 48% more than for the 2019 fiscal year by the end of the last available reporting period.
It could certainly be argued that usage had not returned to its pre-pandemic levels by the 2022-2023 fiscal period. Despite the libraries being open for that year, it should not come as a surprise, as the COVID Public Health Emergency had not been declared over until May of 2023. Visits for that year were back up to 65% of pre-pandemic levels, with reference transactions at near-identical percentage. However, circulation of physical materials was back up to 86% of baseline. Including digital materials, children’s material circulation exceeded 94% of the numbers prior to COVID, while circulation of adult materials lagged behind at closer to 73%. The most impacted service still remained the use of wireless internet at just slightly more than 20% of previous levels. At the library-level, most locations actually recovered in this metric in line with the recovery of the visitors metric. However, two libraries, Aloha Community Library and Cedar Mill Community Library, still remained at 5% of their respective 2019 values of 104,561 and 729,591 during the 2023 fiscal year.
Closing Remarks
Given the tremendous impact of the pandemic on library visits, the fact these libraries were able to maintain services to the degree that they did is a testament to their perseverance and ingenuity. The report appendices during the 2020, 2021, and 2022 fiscal years mention the move to curbside pickup, delivery services, bookmobiles, and locational partnerships to maintain the community’s access to their materials. Reference services were done by phone, email, or by individual appointment. For some libraries, computers were checked out and wireless access points provided to maintain internet access to those who needed it. Programming for children and adults were converted to virtual and outdoor sessions, and take home activity bags were provided. Through the hard work of librarians and volunteers, the libraries maintained their presence as a valuable lifeline to the community, and often still continue many of the expanded and differentiated services.
As for the evolution of library usage from the physical to the digital, there is some evidence of that migration continuing beyond the pandemic. As the convenience of eBooks and other digital materials preempt the need for many of the visits that were common pre-pandemic, many libraries find themselves navigating a transition of purpose. The digitalization aspect of that change may be difficult to traverse, as library acquisition of digital materials may be slowed by price differentials between physical and digital copies. It will be interesting to see how the dynamic between media sellers, libraries, and patrons changes as the years pass, and how libraries evolve in what services they provide to their communities.