Surprise Public Library launches public data dashboard and reports $11.3 million in annual patron savings

At the Library Advisory Commission meeting Oct. 9, Surprise Public Library staff unveiled a public-facing data dashboard that will publish 33 monthly performance metrics to the public and city leadership.

Library staff told commissioners the dashboard is intended to increase transparency, tie library work to the City Council strategic plan adopted in June 2025, and provide data staff will use when requesting future staffing and budget increases. "We have nothing to hide," the presenter said, describing the new tool as a way for the public to see how the system is performing.

Staff showed systemwide trends across six categories: key performance indicators (visitor counts and active cardholders), programs and outreach, collections and circulation (physical and digital), budget, community connections (outreach and volunteers) and technology access. The dashboard is publicly accessible via the library website under Resources > Data Dashboard and allows downloads of PNG images and CSV data for deeper review.

The presentation included these headline figures presented by staff: roughly 43,000 active library cardholders (a gain from about 27,000 a year earlier and above the county-era count of about 29,000), a year-to-date increase in visitor counts of roughly 50 percent compared with prior periods, and heavy growth at Hollyhock Library (staff said monthly visitors at one point exceeded 1,500). Staff also reported that last summer's reading program approached 6,000 participants and that a recent Stars and Stories kickoff had 475 registered users with nearly 400 attendees at Surprise Regional.

On resource-sharing and collections, staff said the system is an active participant in interlibrary loan and the MAX lending consortium and that Surprise ranks among the top requesters in MAX. The library has begun tracking a growing "Library of Things" collection (telescopes, kits and other nontraditional items) and is using circulation and material-type metrics to inform future purchasing.

Staff presented a calculated FY25 patron savings figure of $11,300,000 tied to physical circulation (books, CDs, audiobooks and DVDs) and said the estimate produced a ratio of $3.09 in patron value for every dollar of city funding. The presenter stressed that this calculation currently excludes digital circulations and program value, and that staff are exploring methods to attach conservative monetary values to digital checkouts and program services in future reports.

Commissioners asked whether the dashboard will track branch-level targets as well as systemwide metrics. Staff said data are already recorded by branch and can be broken out for targets and staffing decisions, though the library has so far used systemwide measures to balance resources across branches.

Operational metrics on the dashboard include: front-desk interactions (roughly 11,000 people helped in September; about 93,000 year-to-date), volunteer hours (September ~319 volunteer hours, estimated as about $9,000 in labor value), curbside pickup and mobile services, program counts and attendance, turnover rate (items checked out per collection item ~5.27 in FY25), and cost-per-visit (about $9.86 in FY25). Staff said these measures help justify requests for additional staff and to plan the MultiGen facility and other services.

Staff also reviewed communications and access metrics: a monthly library newsletter sent to about 11,000 subscribers, website and mobile app activity (including ~149 new mobile app users in a recent month), and social media growth. The presenter noted limitations obtaining historical data from some social platforms but said staff will report available metrics monthly.

Technology access and printing were discussed: the library tracks public-computer sessions and print volumes. Staff noted an operational decision to provide patrons a daily allowance of prints (23 prints per day) at low cost and to waive fees where appropriate; printing is a meaningful operational expense for the department.

Staff closed by recognizing the technical services and statistics staff who built the dashboard and reiterated that the city-facing and public dashboard will be updated monthly and allow CSV downloads for independent review. The presenter said the dashboard will be used to demonstrate community demand for services and to support future budget requests.

The commission moved to other business after the presentation, discussing local-author donations and upcoming events including a planned aviation-themed program. The meeting adjourned after a motion and second; no opposition was recorded on the transcript.