Douglas County Libraries
Douglas County Libraries is a library district based in Castle Rock (Douglas County), Colorado, serving a legal service area of 383,911 residents through seven library buildings. Among the 101 profiled systems in Colorado, it ranks third for physical checkouts, third for program attendance, fourth for total visits and fourth for operating spending.
Among profiled systems serving 250,000 to 499,999 residents, it ranks seventh for physical checkouts per resident and eighth for weekly open hours per outlet. Against the median system of its size class, it records 2.5 times the program attendance per resident and 2.4 times the operating spending per resident.
Douglas County against the 122 systems of its size class
Douglas County since FY 2019
Visits were 17% below the FY 2019 count of 1.7 million (size-class median: −30%). Physical checkouts moved 31% down over the same span.
- Visits
- Physical checkouts
Who comes to Douglas County programs
Programs for children up to age 11 drew 93% of all program attendance, and sessions averaged 33 people each.
Douglas County in numbers, FY 2024
- Visits
- 1,400,186
- Physical checkouts
- 3,752,695
- …of children's materials
- 2,358,332
- Electronic checkouts
- 2,008,559
- …of e-books
- 931,412
- …of e-audio
- 974,060
- Registered users
- 172,695
- Program sessions
- 5,882
- Program attendance
- 191,260
- Print volumes
- 382,150
- Audio items (physical)
- 16,856
- Video items (physical)
- 54,498
- Public computers
- 210
- Public service hours, all outlets
- 22,272
- Paid staff (full-time equivalent)
- 266.0
- Operating spending
- $33.7 million
- …on books and other materials
- $4.6 million
- Overdue fines on print items
- not charged
Where Douglas County gets its operating money
Operating revenue came to $43.1 million, or $112.32 per resident. The local-government share is close to the combined share for the 101 profiled systems in Colorado.
- Local government
- State
- Federal
- Other (fines, fees, gifts, grants)
Douglas County, building by building
The seven buildings cover 195,329 square feet in total, 0.51 square feet per resident against a median of 0.46 for the size class. The largest building is Philip & Jerry Miller Library at 64,000 square feet; the smallest is Louviers Library at 1,200. The longest hours, 70 a week, are shared by six buildings.
| Building | Type | Town | Hours a week | Floor area, sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Castle Pines Library | Branch | Castle Rock | 70 | 15,652 |
| Highlands Ranch Library | Branch | Highlands Ranch | 70 | 42,000 |
| Lone Tree Library | Branch | Lone Tree | 70 | 24,826 |
| Louviers Library | Branch | Louviers | 11 | 1,200 |
| Neighborhood Library at Roxborough | Branch | Littleton | 70 | 5,700 |
| Parker Library | Branch | Parker | 70 | 41,951 |
| Philip & Jerry Miller Library | Branch | Castle Rock | 70 | 64,000 |
Library districts of similar size in other states
Of these six systems, one records more visits per resident than this one. None of them matches this system's checkouts per resident.
| System | Based in | Residents | Visits per resident | Checkouts per resident | Spending per resident |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of St. Louis Municipal Library District | St. Louis, MO | 301,578 | 3.48 | 5.01 | $104.81 |
| Springfield-Greene County Library District | Springfield, MO | 298,915 | 3.99 | 6.77 | $51.49 |
| Kitsap Regional Library | Bremerton, WA | 286,100 | 2.91 | 6.11 | $61.07 |
| North Las Vegas Library District | North Las Vegas, NV | 282,496 | 0.94 | 1.24 | $12.66 |
| North Central Regional Library | Wenatchee, WA | 280,865 | 2.33 | 2.60 | $58.44 |
| Mid-Columbia Libraries | Kennewick, WA | 272,954 | 1.86 | 5.48 | $33.77 |
Nearest in size within Colorado
- Aurora Public Library · Aurora · 394,380 residents
- Rangeview Library District · Thornton · 406,718 residents
- High Plains Library District · Greeley · 315,735 residents
- Arapahoe Library District · Englewood · 277,382 residents