How much is the library worth to you? There are a lot of ways to answer that question – you might value the library as a place to bring your kids for storytime, a place to find the latest bestseller or blockbuster, a place to learn ukulele or send a fax or just to get out of the rain when the weather is crummy. And it’s true that the library is valuable for all those reasons (and many more!). But you can also demonstrate the value of your library card in everyone’s favorite way – cold hard cash.  

I love buying books. There are six 6-foot tall bookcases in my house (and let’s not talk about the random piles of books scatted throughout the kitchen, living room, bedroom….). But in order to leave some space in my budget for boring things like food, clothes, and mortgage payments, I also use the library a lot.  

If you’ve ever gotten a checkout receipt, or taken a look at the screen while you’re scanning your books, you may have noticed a little blurb after each item that tells you how much money you saved by borrowing the item instead of buying. As part of our special library superpowers, we can also see running year-to-date and lifetime totals, so I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of the numbers for our library staff.  

When it comes to lifetime totals, I was certain I would come in as the winner with 4,438 items checked out since 2016 – saving myself $42,629. That is, until I checked the numbers for Stephanie, our Adult Services Lead, who has checked out a whopping 7,333 books over the last decade (saving herself $52,751 in the process!). Even our newest staff member has saved $90 in just over a month.  

With our new SHARE mobile library app, it’s easier than ever to save money at the library. You can scan the barcode for any book, movie, CD, etc., and find out then and there if it’s something the library has in stock. If you, like me, are a parent spending a lot of time at GameStop, you can easily save hundreds of dollars in no time at all. If you’re looking to bump up your saving totals, feel free to stop in and see us any time.