Fairfax County Public Library
Fairfax County Public Library is a multi-jurisdictional public library system based in Fairfax, Virginia, serving a legal service area of 1,169,440 residents through 23 library buildings. Among the 93 profiled systems in Virginia, it leads on population served, total visits, operating spending and number of library buildings.
Of all 8,561 systems profiled nationwide, it ranks tenth for physical checkouts. Among profiled systems serving 1 million or more residents, it ranks third for weekly open hours per outlet, fourth for physical checkouts per resident, fourth for local government's share of operating revenue and sixth for paid staff per resident, but ranks second-lowest for public computers per resident.
Fairfax County against the 35 systems of its size class
Fairfax County, building by building
The 23 buildings cover 472,020 square feet in total, 0.40 square feet per resident against a median of 0.39 for the size class. The largest building is Fairfax City Regional Library at 43,886 square feet; the smallest is Access Services at 5,982. The longest hours, 65 a week, are shared by seven buildings.
| Building | Type | Town | Hours a week | Floor area, sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Access Services | Branch | Fairfax | 45 | 5,982 |
| Burke Centre Community Library | Branch | Burke | 54 | 16,720 |
| Centreville Regional Library | Branch | Centreville | 65 | 30,000 |
| Chantilly Regional Library | Branch | Chantilly | 65 | 26,000 |
| Dolley Madison Community Library | Branch | McLean | 54 | 19,250 |
| Fairfax City Regional Library | Branch | Fairfax | 65 | 43,886 |
| George Mason Regional Library | Branch | Annandale | 65 | 28,800 |
| Great Falls Community Library | Branch | Great Falls | 54 | 13,000 |
| Herndon Fortnightly Community Library | Branch | Herndon | 54 | 17,400 |
| John Marshall Community Library | Branch | Alexandria | 54 | 13,594 |
| Kings Park Community Library | Branch | Burke | 54 | 17,272 |
| Kingstowne Community Library | Branch | Alexandria | 54 | 15,000 |
| Lorton Community Library | Branch | Lorton | 54 | 10,000 |
| Martha Washington Community Library | Branch | Alexandria | 54 | 17,990 |
| Oakton Community Library | Branch | Oakton | 54 | 17,304 |
| Patrick Henry Community Library | Branch | Vienna | 54 | 13,092 |
| Pohick Regional Library | Branch | Burke | 65 | 25,000 |
| Reston Regional Library | Branch | Reston | 65 | 30,000 |
| Richard Byrd Community Library | Branch | Springfield | 54 | 18,200 |
| Sherwood Regional Library | Branch | Alexandria | 65 | 37,600 |
| Thomas Jefferson Community Library | Branch | Falls Church | 54 | 16,500 |
| Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library | Branch | Falls Church | 54 | 25,000 |
| Woodrow Wilson Community Library | Branch | Falls Church | 54 | 14,430 |
Fairfax County in numbers, FY 2024
- Visits
- 3,211,348
- Physical checkouts
- 8,294,907
- …of children's materials
- 5,149,626
- Electronic checkouts
- 3,759,625
- …of e-books
- 1,641,232
- …of e-audio
- 1,534,944
- Registered users
- 189,423
- Program sessions
- 12,013
- Program attendance
- 263,075
- Print volumes
- 1,453,999
- Audio items (physical)
- 63,730
- Video items (physical)
- 47,663
- Public computers
- 342
- Public service hours, all outlets
- 68,120
- Paid staff (full-time equivalent)
- 553.0
- Operating spending
- $47.5 million
- …on books and other materials
- $5.2 million
- Overdue fines on print items
- not charged
Where Fairfax County gets its operating money
Operating revenue came to $47.3 million, or $40.43 per resident. The local-government share sits 6 percentage points above the combined share for the 93 profiled systems in Virginia. No federal operating revenue was reported.
- Local government
- State
- Federal
- Other (fines, fees, gifts, grants)
Fairfax County since FY 2019
Visits were 30% below the FY 2019 count of 4.6 million (size-class median: −34%). Physical checkouts moved 8% down over the same span.
- Visits
- Physical checkouts
Who comes to Fairfax County programs
Programs for children up to age 11 drew 74% of all program attendance, and sessions averaged 22 people each.
Multi-jurisdictional libraries of similar size in other states
None of these six systems 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sacramento Public Library | Sacramento, CA | 1,490,915 | 1.35 | 2.84 | $38.30 |
| Jacksonville Public Library | Jacksonville, FL | 1,062,145 | 2.09 | 3.61 | $38.07 |
| Pinellas Public Library Cooperative | Clearwater, FL | 946,776 | 2.50 | 3.55 | $41.77 |
| Polk County Library Cooperative | Bartow, FL | 822,769 | 1.89 | 2.18 | $18.08 |
| Great River Regional Library | St. Cloud, MN | 515,855 | 2.19 | 4.53 | $19.03 |
| West Georgia Regional Library | Carrollton, GA | 510,050 | 1.34 | 2.06 | $16.52 |
Nearest in size within Virginia
- Prince William Public Libraries · Prince William · 525,441 residents
- Virginia Beach Public Library · Virginia Beach · 458,028 residents
- Loudoun County Public Library · Leesburg · 425,204 residents
- Chesterfield County Public Library · Chesterfield · 369,943 residents