Lewisville library tells Superior council it serves tens of thousands, warns digital‑lending costs are rising

Brandy Cummings, director of cultural services for the City of Lewisville, told the Superior Town Council on Jan. 26 that Lewisville Public Library continues to see very high use across the joint Lewisville–Superior service area and that rising publisher licensing costs complicate digital lending.

Cummings said the library’s 2024 service area includes about 32,000 residents and reported striking engagement numbers: library‑card holders exceed population percentages, circulation per capita and visits per capita rank high among peer libraries, and in 2025 the library logged roughly 276,000 total visits and issued 44,000 new cards. She said Lewisville and Superior together are part of the Marmot consortia (MLN2), which expands access to digital resources across neighboring municipal libraries.

The presentation placed special emphasis on digital lending and licensing. "Publishers set the terms," Cummings said, explaining that libraries license e‑books and digital audiobooks rather than purchasing perpetual copies, and that some licensing models require repurchase after a set number of checkouts. She warned that digital content can cost libraries "three to five times" what an individual purchase would cost and noted that one platform, Hoopla, has seen steep price increases in the past.

Why it matters: many Superior residents rely on Lewisville for library services under an intergovernmental agreement, and rising digital prices affect what materials the library can afford to license or purchase. Cummings said the library’s budget is a mix of municipal funding (about three‑quarters from Lewisville and roughly one‑fifth from Superior in the figures she cited), state grants and foundation support, and that staff capacity and capital costs limit the pace of service expansion.

Council members pressed Cummings on specifics. When asked how visit counts are measured, she said the library uses door counters for building entries and applies conservative adjustments for multi‑use spaces; when asked about privacy she said public libraries protect circulation and computer‑use records and that disclosing such information typically requires a court order. On why some neighboring systems offer different digital platforms, she said price, licensing terms, and consortia arrangements drive those differences.

Cummings also described planned improvements and outreach: a Superior‑focused data dashboard to track municipal residency in program signups and room bookings, two grant applications (the Peggy Barber Tribute Grant and a National Endowment for the Arts grant) to support programming, and an ongoing cultural services strategic plan. She highlighted high program volume (over 600 programs and about 28,000 attendees in 2025) and a popular Library of Things that loans telescopes, cameras, hotspots and pass programs.

The council did not take formal action on library funding at the meeting. Cummings said she will share the Superior dashboard and additional data with council members when the tool is ready.