Ela area library reaches record annual circulation

The Ela Area Public Library has reached a milestone as its circulation hit 1 million items checked out in the past year.

After coming up about 43,000 items short of 1 million last June, the library met its goal sometime this week, library director Mary Beth Campe said Friday.

"As a librarian and as a library director, we love to see people in here checking out our material because that means we're doing our job as well," Campe said.

A 1 million-item circulation, though not unusual, is new for Ela, which serves about 32,000 people and has about 223,000 items in its collection, she said. The library drew about 400,000 people through its doors in the past year, also a milestone, she said.

Ela joins a handful of other local libraries, such as Cook Memorial in Libertyville, at that circulation level.

The Ela library began its Marching to a Million campaign in January. To help reach the goal, it held drawings for people who checked out 10 items or more per visit, Campe said.

The most popular items to borrow are fiction books and DVDs or videos, but in recent months, there has been a surge in people searching for career resources, she said.

"We've definitely seen an upswing in job hunters," Campe said.

The library will try to "hold steady" at 1 million items checked out for the upcoming year before setting a new goal, she said.