Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Library Services topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Wauwatosa Public Library reports record circulation, expands "library of things" and outreach
Summary
Library director Peter Loeffel presented the annual report showing the library's highest circulation in 13 years, growth of a "library of things," added study pods and new self-check in the children's library that logged more than 3,000 checkouts in its first full month.
The Wauwatosa Public Library told the common council it recorded its highest circulation in 13 years and the fifth-highest total in the library's history during 2024, and it is expanding services and outreach.
Peter Loeffel, director of the Wauwatosa Public Library, said the library added about 250 new items to its "library of things" collectionnontraditional items like tools, games, museum passes and STEM kitsand is renovating an art-display area to accommodate the collection. Loeffel said the children's self-check station, moved into the children's library a few months earlier, handled more than 3,000 checkouts in its first full month, freeing up staff time at the main desk.
Loeffel provided circulation numbers: about 850,000 total checkouts in 2024 when digital platforms are included. He said the children's collection circulated about 397,000 physical items and about 14,000 digital items for roughly 410,000 children's checkouts; he told aldermen that total circulation ranks Wauwatosa fifth in the state and ahead of other suburban libraries in Milwaukee County.
Other service changes include adding study pods (the library foundation funded two more), installing a new automatic materials handler that speeds check-in for more than 700,000 physical items annually, and workforce-development programs that include monthly job coaching and an annual job fair in partnership with agencies such as Goodwill. Loeffel also described plans for intergenerational story times and outreach (for example, at Ronald McDonald House and Trinity Woods on the Mount Mary campus), new feedback systems for programming, and work on self-registration and automatic card renewal to reduce staff workload.
Loeffel said library and foundation leaders are prepared for a future capital campaign but are waiting for a defined project before launching broad fundraising; any campaign funds would be held by the library foundation and transferred to a city-held fund per a memorandum of understanding.
Why it matters: The library's circulation and program expansion show demand for public-library services and inform future planning, maintenance and possible renovation priorities.
