Lewes Public Library
Lewes Public Library is a library district based in Lewes (Sussex County), Delaware, serving a legal service area of 26,989 residents from a single building. Among profiled systems in Delaware, it ranks first for physical checkouts per resident, second for visits per resident, second for weekly open hours per outlet and third for electronic checkouts, but ranks last for local government's share of operating revenue.
By population served it is the eighth-largest of the 21 profiled systems in Delaware. Against the median system of its size class, it records 3.6 times the program attendance per resident and 2.4 times the public computers per resident.
Lewes against the 964 systems of its size class
Who comes to Lewes programs
Programs for adults drew 58% of all program attendance, and sessions averaged 19 people each.
Nearest in size within Delaware
- Milford Public Library · Milford · 27,683 residents
- Corbit-Calloway Memorial Library · Odessa · 26,290 residents
- New Castle Public Library · New Castle · 24,805 residents
- Seaford District Library · Seaford · 23,024 residents
Lewes in numbers, FY 2024
- Visits
- 173,665
- Physical checkouts
- 232,772
- …of children's materials
- 72,243
- Electronic checkouts
- 85,236
- …of e-books
- 49,042
- …of e-audio
- 34,297
- Registered users
- 21,385
- Program sessions
- 1,840
- Program attendance
- 34,721
- Print volumes
- 46,972
- Audio items (physical)
- 1,952
- Video items (physical)
- 4,142
- Public computers
- 42
- Public service hours, all outlets
- 2,550
- Paid staff (full-time equivalent)
- 9.7
- Operating spending
- $1 million
- …on books and other materials
- $84,183
- Overdue fines on print items
- charged
Where Lewes gets its operating money
Operating revenue came to $1.1 million, or $39.45 per resident. The local-government share sits 35 percentage points below 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)
The Lewes building
The single building covers 28,500 square feet, 1.06 square feet per resident against a median of 0.74 for the size class. It is open 51 hours a week.
| Building | Type | Town | Hours a week | Floor area, sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lewes Public Library | Central library | Lewes | 51 | 28,500 |
Library districts of similar size in other states
None of these six systems records more visits per resident than this one. The highest checkout rate in the group belongs to Cary Area Public Library District in Illinois.
| System | Based in | Residents | Visits per resident | Checkouts per resident | Spending per resident |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cary Area Public Library District | Cary, IL | 27,256 | 3.37 | 10.00 | $80.16 |
| Perry County Public Library | Hazard, KY | 27,133 | 2.48 | 2.57 | $57.91 |
| Westbury Memorial Public Library | Westbury, NY | 27,050 | 5.41 | 2.62 | $124.82 |
| Community District Library | Corunna, MI | 26,969 | 2.54 | 0.72 | $29.03 |
| Grayson County Public Library | Leitchfield, KY | 26,825 | 1.85 | 1.91 | $35.77 |
| North Bellmore Public Library | North Bellmore, NY | 26,724 | 2.40 | 3.43 | $121.53 |