Hoover Public Library
Hoover Public Library is a municipal public library based in Hoover (Jefferson County), Alabama, serving a legal service area of 92,435 residents from a single building. Among profiled systems in Alabama, it ranks second for electronic checkouts, second for weekly open hours per outlet, third for physical checkouts and third for operating spending.
By population served it is the 11th-largest of the 214 profiled systems in Alabama. Against the median system of its size class, it records 3.0 times the physical checkouts per resident and 2.6 times the operating spending per resident.
Hoover against the 559 systems of its size class
Hoover since FY 2019
Visits were 31% below the FY 2019 count of 547,859 (size-class median: −29%). Physical checkouts moved 33% down over the same span.
- Visits
- Physical checkouts
Who comes to Hoover programs
Programs for children up to age 11 drew 39% of all program attendance, and sessions averaged 50 people each.
Hoover in numbers, FY 2024
- Visits
- 380,718
- Physical checkouts
- 938,833
- …of children's materials
- 550,891
- Electronic checkouts
- 442,387
- …of e-books
- 184,350
- …of e-audio
- 209,742
- Registered users
- 39,010
- Program sessions
- 1,258
- Program attendance
- 63,432
- Print volumes
- 178,597
- Audio items (physical)
- 8,779
- Video items (physical)
- 13,789
- Public computers
- 53
- Public service hours, all outlets
- 3,345
- Paid staff (full-time equivalent)
- 68.3
- Operating spending
- $8.9 million
- …on books and other materials
- $752,354
- Overdue fines on print items
- charged
Where Hoover gets its operating money
Operating revenue came to $9 million, or $97.86 per resident. The local-government share sits 9 percentage points above the combined share for the 213 profiled systems in Alabama.
- Local government
- State
- Federal
- Other (fines, fees, gifts, grants)
The Hoover building
The single building covers 85,000 square feet, 0.92 square feet per resident against a median of 0.62 for the size class. It is open 64.3 hours a week.
| Building | Type | Town | Hours a week | Floor area, sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hoover Public Library | Central library | Hoover | 64.3 | 85,000 |
Municipal 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temple Public Library | Temple, TX | 93,095 | 1.91 | 4.24 | $24.95 |
| Santa Monica Public Library | Santa Monica, CA | 92,912 | 3.34 | 7.35 | $120.89 |
| Nashua Public Library | Nashua, NH | 92,515 | 1.96 | 2.95 | $38.81 |
| Hamilton Township Free Public Library | Hamilton, NJ | 92,297 | 0.64 | 1.21 | $32.38 |
| L.e. Phillips Memorial Public Library | Eau Claire, WI | 91,323 | 2.89 | 7.08 | $67.04 |
| Mission Viejo Library | Mission Viejo, CA | 91,304 | 3.47 | 8.60 | $41.19 |
Nearest in size within Alabama
- Florence-Lauderdale Public Library · Florence · 92,744 residents
- Decatur Public Library · Decatur · 91,130 residents
- Cullman County Public Library · Cullman · 90,665 residents
- Cheaha Regional Library · Heflin · 100,914 residents