The Faulkner County Library System released its 2023 annual report, detailing how its resources are used and how often.

The Faulkner County Public Library — located at 1900 Tyler St., Conway, Arkansas — is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and closed on Sundays.

According to the Faulkner-Van Buren Regional Library System website, “The Conway Library serves as the headquarters library for the county system of six libraries as well as the Faulkner County–Van Buren County Regional Library.”

Other library locations within the county include:

• The Vilonia Public Library at 3 Bise St.

• The Greenbrier Public Library at 13 Wilson Farm Road.

• The Mayflower Public Library at 6 Ashmore Drive.

• The Mt. Vernon Public Library at 1371 Highway 36.

• The Twin Groves Public Library at 10 Twin Groves Lane.

According to the report, the “locations are open a combined 251 hours per week. A new location in Guy will open in 2024.”

John McGraw, director of the Faulkner County Library, said while the Guy Public Library was supposed to open earlier this year, it has yet to open.

“It’s an old Church of Christ. The city owns the building and they are refurbishing the whole thing. It’s a community center and we’ve got just a narrow room along the back — It’s only 17 feet wide,” McGraw said. 

“It still needs plumbing; it still needs a lot of stuff. The mayor is literally shaking up couch cushions looking for spare change to finish the job,” he said. They got so many other things that are going on because that part of Faulkner County is just exploding with development.”

According to the report, library visits increased by 16% in 2023, totaling 320,000 visits to Faulkner County Libraries during 2023.

Library visitors can use various resources during their time at the library. According to the report:

• Computers, internet access and printers were used for a total of 34,504 hours.

• Meeting rooms were used for 293 total hours.

• 1,685 database searches were made.

• 47,512 reference assistances were made.

Participation in library programs increased by 83% compared to 2022, according to the report. The libraries saw 4,500 new cardholders, averaging 14 new cardholders per day.

The report states, “We hosted 2,938 programs, welcoming 13,530 adults, 6,041 teens and 40,024 children.”

McGraw said the most important programs the library hosts are the reading programs for children.

“We have storytimes going on all the time. We’ve also got a program called 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten, which gets parents sort of aimed to get their children 1,000 books read before they start kindergarten,” McGraw said. “You got to be able to read to succeed in this country today and that starts with parents and it starts with little kids.”

According to the report, the libraries increased their collection by 16% — most notably by adding 257,000 items to their downloadable services. 

Thousands of these items were used during 2023, according to the annual report.

• 102,226 eBooks were downloaded.

• 102,929 audiobooks were borrowed.

• 529 CDs were borrowed.

• 52,224 movies were borrowed.

• 96,948 adult books were borrowed.

• 10,413 young adult books were borrowed.

• 135,100 children’s books were borrowed.

• 14,602 magazines were borrowed. 

McGraw said the only way to expand the library physically is to increase taxes, but “it’s not gonna be easy to get a tax increase on the ballot.”

McGraw said instead, the library has expanded digitally to further provide for the community.

“The only way you can really do that is just to expand downloadable stuff. So whether you’re in the deer stand or on vacation or traveling across the country for a road trip with your friends — you can still have access to your library card numbers, ebooks, downloadable audiobooks, or Taylor Swift, or watch a documentary.” 

The library system allows visitors to borrow books from the various libraries in the system. According to the report, 996 interlibrary loan requests were made.

The library provides more than just media.

McGraw said, “We’ve got eclipse glasses we’re about to distribute to the public. We’ve got a telescope at almost every location that can be checked out if you have a full moon or a lunar eclipse or a meteor shower or something you want to do.”

McGraw said the library is also doing free tax prep and hosting early voting. He said behind the library, there is a community garden, too.

The report states the Faulkner County Libraries “returned $2.99 in goods and services for every dollar spent.” The total value of library use for 2023 was $8,236,240.