Happy New Years! Like all of you, we are looking back at 2024 and looking forward to the stories about to unfold. There’s a calm in that pause between the end and the beginning. So, take time to enjoy it. Whether or not you eat black eyed peas and greens for good luck, make resolutions or goals, or simply turn to a new month on your calendar, we hope the library factors into your plans for 2025.

It’s clear that the library was the place to be for 2024. Here’s a look back by the numbers:

  • Visitors: More than one million people visited at least one of our 19 facilities in person!
  • Check outs: You all checked out 3.2 million items — that includes books, movies, music in all formats
  • New to the collection: Nearly 50,000 items were added to the catalog
  • Imagination Library sent out its four millionth book since launching the program in 2005
  • Books for the Homebound: Volunteers delivered 6,685 books to our neighbors who can’t make it to the library
  • Answering questions: Our reference librarians answered 230,553 questions. That’s about 650 answers every day!
  • Library card holders: 182,573 Knox County residents (and some from outside of the county) have an active KCPL library card in their wallets!
  • Most checked out books: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver was borrowed 425 times and Book Lovers by Emily Henry was downloaded 637 times! Dav Pilkey’s DogMan Fetch-22 was the most downloaded juvenile book with 190 checkouts and DogMan Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea was checked out 252 times.
  • Programs: We offered 2,511 programs which were attended by 89,000 people!

Of course, you can’t reduce the impact of the library to a few numbers. The real value of the library is in the relationships we have with the community. Greeting families at storytime and recommending the perfect book at the right time is worth a million items borrowed. We love being able to discuss a story at a book club, help you search for a new job or research your family’s genealogy at the History Center.

May 2025 be filled with great stories, old and new.

Mary Pom Claiborne is assistant director for marketing, communications and development for Knox County Public Library.