At the Library, we keep track of all kinds of numbers (but not titles or personally identified requests) so we can measure what we do. We report library activity each month to the five-member Library Board (City of Monterey representatives who are the policymakers for the Library), quarterly to the State Library, and every year to each of you through the Library’s Annual Report.

The Library seems busier and busier - and our numbers show it. In February 2008, in spite of being closed four days for lighting, plumbing and building upgrades and staff training, almost 28,000 visits were made to the Library and Bookmobile. An average of 1,100 visits a day. And 39,834 items were checked out – almost a 10% irease from last February!

Of course, the Library’s story can’t be read from just the numbers. We add the joy of a storytime toddler, clutching a favorite board book. A college student’s quiet absorption while reading email from home on a checked out library laptop. The gleam in an 80-year-old’s eyes as he shares a great title, plucked from the "Think Big" large print reading display.

We include the hush in the Community Room when the storyteller pauses, and 90 people wait, suspended, to hear what comes next. Slow and steady progress on sounding out syllables by a learner and literacy tutor meeting weekly in the Library. The "Thank you. I had a wonderful session - my tutor really helped me notice the little details," from a high school student after a free Live Homework Help online tutoring session. The hundreds of intangible ways, every day, you report back to us how we’re doing.

YOU count at the Monterey Public Library. And this week we remind ourselves of that fact by tallying the times we are privileged to serve YOU.