Howard County Library System
Howard County Library System is a county public library system based in Ellicott City (Howard County), Maryland, serving a legal service area of 334,529 residents through six library buildings and two bookmobiles. Among profiled systems serving 250,000 to 499,999 residents, it ranks second for physical checkouts per resident and sixth for program attendance per resident.
Among the 24 profiled systems in Maryland, it ranks second for visits per resident, third for physical checkouts, third for program attendance and third for operating spending per resident. Against the median system of its size class, it records 2.4 times the paid staff per resident and 71% more print volumes per resident.
Howard County against the 122 systems of its size class
Howard County since FY 2019
Visits were 20% below the FY 2019 count of 2 million (size-class median: −30%). Physical checkouts moved 33% down over the same span.
- Visits
- Physical checkouts
Who comes to Howard County programs
Programs for children up to age 11 drew 52% of all program attendance, and sessions averaged 27 people each.
Howard County in numbers, FY 2024
- Visits
- 1,570,742
- Physical checkouts
- 4,183,529
- …of children's materials
- 2,495,641
- Electronic checkouts
- 1,110,170
- …of e-books
- 453,890
- …of e-audio
- 443,780
- Registered users
- 229,829
- Program sessions
- 9,469
- Program attendance
- 251,028
- Print volumes
- 705,574
- Audio items (physical)
- 48,409
- Video items (physical)
- 88,180
- Public computers
- 318
- Public service hours, all outlets
- 19,092
- Paid staff (full-time equivalent)
- 250.0
- Operating spending
- $29.8 million
- …on books and other materials
- $2.8 million
- Overdue fines on print items
- not charged
Where Howard County gets its operating money
Operating revenue came to $30.3 million, or $90.69 per resident. The local-government share sits 12 percentage points above the combined share for the 24 profiled systems in Maryland. Federal money made up 2.2% of the total.
- Local government
- State
- Federal
- Other (fines, fees, gifts, grants)
Howard County, building by building
The six buildings cover 216,800 square feet in total, 0.65 square feet per resident against a median of 0.46 for the size class. The largest building is Miller Branch at 60,000 square feet; the smallest is Elkridge Branch at 15,500. The longest hours, 60.5 a week, are shared by two buildings.
| Building | Type | Town | Hours a week | Floor area, sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central Branch | Branch | Columbia | 60.5 | 48,400 |
| East Columbia Branch | Branch | Columbia | 59.6 | 39,100 |
| Elkridge Branch | Branch | Elkridge | 59.6 | 15,500 |
| Glenwood Branch | Branch | Cooksville | 59.6 | 29,800 |
| Miller Branch | Branch | Ellicott City | 60.5 | 60,000 |
| Savage Branch | Branch | Laurel | 59.6 | 24,000 |
| On the Road Tp K | Bookmobile | Ellicott City | 6.5 | |
| Steam Machine | Bookmobile | Ellicott City | 3.1 |
County 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cumberland County Public Library | Fayetteville, NC | 337,970 | 1.84 | 2.99 | $33.32 |
| Henrico County Public Library | Henrico, VA | 336,226 | 4.22 | 7.36 | $67.13 |
| Durham County Library | Durham, NC | 334,350 | 1.50 | 6.70 | $41.93 |
| West Florida Public Libraries | Pensacola, FL | 334,119 | 1.17 | 2.03 | $23.55 |
| St. Johns County Public Library System | St. Augustine, FL | 331,327 | 2.25 | 3.65 | $28.69 |
| Spartanburg County Public Library System | Spartanburg, SC | 327,997 | 2.88 | 4.54 | $52.71 |
Nearest in size within Maryland
- Frederick County Public Libraries · Frederick · 279,835 residents
- Harford County Public Library · Belcamp · 262,977 residents
- Enoch Pratt Free Library · Baltimore · 576,498 residents
- Anne Arundel County Public Library · Annapolis · 590,336 residents