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Liberty Lake library reports steady use, hires two staff for children’s services
Summary
Library director Jandy told the board the library served 7,574 cardholders in 2025, recorded about 69,700 visits and 92,226 checkouts, and has hired two new children's staff; the facility faces space and public-computer constraints while parking-lot work temporarily limits access.
Jandy, the library director, reported to the Liberty Lake Library Board that the library recorded 7,574 cardholders in 2025, including 4,534 city residents and about 3,040 nonresidents, and that the library had roughly 69,700 visits for the year.
"We have a total of 7,574 users," Jandy said, adding that nonresident cardholders rose substantially after the library joined the Inland Share group and implemented a $30 nonresident fee in October 2024. She told the board that 92,226 items were checked out in 2025, of which about 59,000 were children's materials.
The director announced two hires to address the children's-program gap created earlier this year: Chelsea Griffin as children's associate (30 hours per week) and a new children's librarian, Kathy, who previously worked at the Spokane Public Library and will begin with initial duties on June 8 and full duties about June 15. "She has been the official STEM librarian," Jandy said of the new librarian, noting the library's Zayhan funds support children’s STEM programming.
Jandy flagged operational challenges tied to facility size and ongoing construction: Mission Avenue street work and a parking-lot repaving project have limited entry to the building; the parking lot is expected to reopen by May 31 and normal access by June. To reduce service disruption, staff will offer curbside pickup in a front-row spot and extend loan renewals while construction continues.
The board also heard about rising demand for public computers. Jandy said computer sessions rose from about 1,800 in 2023 to roughly 3,080 in 2025; the library has space for four public terminals, one of which is currently inoperable. To manage peak summer demand, the library will temporarily reduce computer-session limits from two hours to one hour during June–August.
On collection size, Jandy said the physical book collection stands at about 21,815 titles and the total collection is roughly 25,000 items, below the recommended two items per resident target (about 28,000 given current population). The board discussed the difficulty of expanding the physical collection within existing shelf space and the higher cost of materials after the pandemic; Jandy said the annual book budget increased from about $55,000 to $66,000 to maintain current volume.
The director closed by asking for volunteers to prepare a condensed presentation of the annual report for the June council meeting; she also said she plans to take maternity leave in August and that Mikaela will step in as interim lead while she is away.
The board raised clarifying questions about registration dates for summer programming (director confirmed registration begins the week school is out; registration opens June 15) and about whether Zayhan funds are included in the library's operating figures (director said those funds are tracked separately and will be included in next year’s operating summary).
