The 2026 fiscal year demonstrates the resilience of both the library and its community during the upheaval and inconvenience of operating in a temporary space while the Library undergoes a major renovation. Perhaps the most interesting thing about this fiscal year-end’s statistics is not what declined, but what we managed to maintain and increase during a period of time when our resources were limited. While reduced access to the building continued to suppress foot traffic and physical circulation, community engagement remained strong. Children’s programming reached record attendance, digital collections and online learning services continued to grow, and nearly as many new library cards were issued as in the previous year. At the same time, the library strengthened its collection, expanded digital offerings, and became an even more active participant in regional resource sharing through interlibrary loan. These trends suggest that patrons have remained connected to the library throughout construction. The Library is positioned for a strong return when the renovated facility opens.
Insights:
1.
The renovation has dramatically impacted building use, but community engagement has held steady.
- Foot traffic decreased 17.9% this year over the previous year. Fiscal year 2026 had a 41% decrease from fiscal year 2024, the last full year of library service at 80 Franklin Avenue.
- Circulation and foot traffic are typically correlated metrics for a public library. Foot traffic decreased 19.9% this year over the previous year. Fiscal year 2026 saw a 44.5% decrease from fiscal year 2024.
- Reference inquiries decreased quite a bit as well (-62% for adult reference and -55% for youth reference), further illustrating the low in-person usage in the temporary library.
- While these statistics are concerning, they are expected, given that these are all library services dependent upon being physically inside the building.
2.
Programs for children are carrying the library.
- Children’s program attendance increased from 10,890 to 11,461 (+5%)
- June attendance (1,760) was by far the highest month of the year, thanks in part to our blockbuster Summer Reading kickoff event, which drew approximately 400 attendees.
- This shows that families have been willing to follow the library despite the limitations of the physical space. Demand is strong for library services for children and families in Pearl River.
- The agility of the library team, and their ability to create crucial community partnerships should also be acknowledged here: the Library’s use of the classrooms and Fellowship Hall at the Pearl River Methodist Church have enabled us to continue a robust roster of programs and events.
3.
The library has successfully shifted some users to digital services while our physical space is limited.
- Digital content usage is up 5% overall.
- Hoopla, with its on-demand ebooks, audiobooks, and media, was up 10%.
- Libby, our most-used digital resource was up 6%.
- Libby use is up partially due to an increase in total number of licenses of (37%), which reduces wait times, and due to our enabling of “Cost-per-circ” content, which provides limited on-demand use of popular titles within budgetary restrictions.
4.
Total library cardholder count has decreased, but plenty of new people are still joining up.
- The annual required patron purge deleted many of the users who joined the Library during the surge of newly-registered patrons in early 2020, at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. This brought our cardholder count by a little more than 2,000, to a total of 7,917, a 19% decrease.
- New library card sign-ups were strong, however, at 474 for the current fiscal year. This is just 5% shy of the FY25 total of 498, despite serving the community from temporary quarters.
- June was the strongest month for new library card sign-ups, at 56, a testament to our school outreach efforts at the end of the school year.
- This data suggests that registering new users is a worthwhile focus, but retaining them is more valuable and challenging.
5.
The Library’s collection is getting healthier.
- PRPL’s interlibrary loan stats within RCLS have improved significantly. During the last fiscal year, our borrowing from other libraries in the system is up 21%, but our lending is up a whopping 135%.
- Pearl River has been a net borrower for many years. Closing that gap means that PRPL is becoming a stronger contributor to the library system, and that the overall value of the collection is growing within our broader region, despite lower local circulation.
- We added 3,448 items this year, and weeded 2,103, for a net total of more than 1,200 additional items to the physical collection. This is a positive step toward rebuilding the collection well before re-opening day.
6.
Demand for digital learning is growing, but interest in databases is waning.
- Digital learning via applications or subscriptions offered through our website are the fastest growing service currently available. We more than doubled usage in this category this year over last year: FY26 – 841, vs. FY25 – 353.
- It’s important to note here that these stats do not include the addition of the New York Times Digital subscription through RCLS. The Times is not able to provide statistical information to individual member libraries on their patrons’ usage. Anecdotally, we have received a fair amount of positive feedback from patrons on the addition of this resource, suggesting that it is also being well used. The full increase of digital engagement is not accurately captured by this stat.
- Mango Languages in particular seems to have found an audience this year, as it saw a 1433% increase in usage over last year. This is likely due in part to our foreign language and ASL programs offered by the Youth Services department, the Learning Lab’s Italian Culture Club, and other cultural literacy initiatives promoted throughout the year.
- At the same time, database usage fell 89% this year from last year, making it an outlier among other categories of digital engagement. This suggests that either product quality requires further investigation, or that additional outreach and library instruction is needed to raise awareness about these resources for local scholars and researchers.
7.
Adult services are resilient, but need more attention and resources.
- Attendance at adult events decreased 7.8.% this year from the previous year. This is less of a decline than was anticipated, and suggests that our core audience has been successfully retained.
- Adult materials still account for roughly twice the circulation of juvenile materials (26,980 vs. 14,352).
- Adult circulation remained relatively steady throughout the year, generally between 2,200–2,900 checkouts per month, without major seasonal swings.
- The adult services staff has suffered attrition due to departures and retirements during the past fiscal year, which significantly affects programming and service delivery. The allocation of additional staff hours to adult services in the next fiscal year are required to continue to engage, retain, and reach new adult members of the Pearl River community moving forward.