Dover Public Library
Dover Public Library is a municipal public library based in Dover (Kent County), Delaware, serving a legal service area of 62,955 residents from a single building. Among profiled systems in Delaware, it ranks first for weekly open hours per outlet, first for local government's share of operating revenue, third for population served and third for physical checkouts, but records the third-steepest decline in physical checkouts since FY 2019.
Against the median system of its size class, it records 73% more public computers per resident and 26% more visits per resident.
Dover against the 559 systems of its size class
The Dover building
The single building covers 46,000 square feet, 0.73 square feet per resident against a median of 0.62 for the size class. It is open 58 hours a week.
| Building | Type | Town | Hours a week | Floor area, sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dover Public Library | Central library | Dover | 58 | 46,000 |
Dover in numbers, FY 2024
- Visits
- 179,233
- Physical checkouts
- 258,300
- …of children's materials
- 97,067
- Electronic checkouts
- 68,276
- …of e-books
- 32,506
- …of e-audio
- 33,593
- Registered users
- 28,677
- Program sessions
- 1,393
- Program attendance
- 18,992
- Print volumes
- 90,887
- Audio items (physical)
- 9,914
- Video items (physical)
- 13,927
- Public computers
- 62
- Public service hours, all outlets
- 3,016
- Paid staff (full-time equivalent)
- 20.4
- Operating spending
- $2.2 million
- …on books and other materials
- $286,587
- Overdue fines on print items
- charged
Where Dover gets its operating money
Operating revenue came to $2.3 million, or $36.38 per resident. The local-government share sits 9 percentage points above the combined share for the 21 profiled systems in Delaware. No federal operating revenue was reported.
- Local government
- State
- Federal
- Other (fines, fees, gifts, grants)
Dover since FY 2019
Visits were 37% below the FY 2019 count of 283,135 (size-class median: −29%). Physical checkouts moved 31% down over the same span.
- Visits
- Physical checkouts
Who comes to Dover programs
Programs for a general audience drew 51% of all program attendance, and sessions averaged 14 people each.
Municipal libraries of similar size in other states
Of these six systems, three record more visits per resident than this one. The highest checkout rate in the group belongs to Chapel Hill Public Library in North Carolina.
| System | Based in | Residents | Visits per resident | Checkouts per resident | Spending per resident |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dearborn Heights City Libraries | Dearborn Heights, MI | 63,292 | 3.48 | 2.21 | $36.80 |
| Chapel Hill Public Library | Chapel Hill, NC | 63,288 | 6.19 | 18.69 | $63.33 |
| West Allis Public Library | West Allis, WI | 63,183 | 4.83 | 5.73 | $29.46 |
| Springfield Public Library | Springfield, OR | 63,078 | 1.67 | 4.55 | $34.75 |
| Porterville Public Library | Porterville, CA | 62,934 | 2.03 | 1.45 | $19.88 |
| The Colony Public Library | The Colony, TX | 62,585 | 0.89 | 1.54 | $22.40 |
Nearest in size within Delaware
- Kent County Public Library · Dover · 61,418 residents
- Sussex County Dept. of Libraries · Georgetown · 71,278 residents
- Wilmington Institute Library · Wilmington · 54,227 residents
- Smyrna Public Library · Smyrna · 39,824 residents