librarysystems

Prince George's County Memorial Library System

Largo, MarylandPrince George`s CountyCounty libraryLarge suburbFiscal year July 2023 to June 2024

Prince George's County Memorial Library System is a county public library system based in Largo (Prince George`s County), Maryland, serving a legal service area of 955,306 residents through 19 library buildings. Among profiled systems in Maryland, it ranks second for population served, second for public computers and second for the electronic share of checkouts, but ranks last for print volumes per resident and last for program attendance per resident.

Among profiled systems serving 500,000 to 999,999 residents, it ranks sixth-lowest for local government's share of operating revenue and records the fourth-steepest decline in physical checkouts since FY 2019 and the eighth-steepest decline in visits since FY 2019. Against the median system of its size class, it records only 47% of the physical checkouts per resident and 35% fewer visits per resident.

Compare with similar-size systemsSystems serving 500,000 to 999,999

Prince George's County Memorial against the 61 systems of its size class

size-class median (50th percentile) · spine height = percentile within the class1.42Visitsper resident22nd percentile1.80Checkoutsper resident12th percentile$41.80Spendingper resident47th percentile0.50Print volumesper resident4th percentile140Program visitsper 1,000 people25th percentile8.5Computersper 10,000 people68th percentile41.7Open hoursper outlet a week27th percentile3.9Staff (FTE)per 10,000 people45th percentile
Gold tick: size-class medianVisits per resident1.4222nd pct.Checkouts per resident1.8012th pct.Spending per resident$41.8047th pct.Print volumes per resident0.504th pct.Program visits per 1,000 people14025th pct.Computers per 10,000 people8.568th pct.Open hours per outlet a week41.727th pct.Staff (FTE) per 10,000 people3.945th pct.

How the measures and percentiles are calculated

Prince George's County Memorial, building by building

The 19 buildings cover 410,704 square feet in total, 0.43 square feet per resident against a median of 0.45 for the size class. The largest building is New Carrollton Branch at 58,500 square feet; the smallest is Mount Rainier Branch at 1,255. The longest hours, 47.6 a week, are shared by two buildings.

BuildingTypeTownHours a weekFloor area, sq ft
Accokeek BranchBranchAccokeek44.214,963
Baden BranchBranchBrandywine39.62,500
Beltsville BranchBranchBeltsville46.224,800
Bladensburg BranchBranchBladensburg406,324
Bowie BranchBranchBowie44.140,449
Fairmount Heights BranchBranchFairmount Heights39.716,887
Glenarden BranchBranchGlenarden47.69,238
Greenbelt BranchBranchGreenbelt47.331,907
Hillcrest Heights BranchBranchTemple Hills41.89,466
Hyattsville BranchBranchHyattsville47.48,100
Largo-Kettering BranchBranchLargo43.725,537
Laurel BranchBranchLaurel47.623,300
Mount Rainier BranchBranchMount Rainier44.11,255
New Carrollton BranchBranchNew Carrollton4758,500
Oxon Hill BranchBranchOxon Hill47.553,396
South Bowie BranchBranchBowie47.145,500
Spauldings BranchBranchDistrict Heights38.32,400
Surratts-Clinton BranchBranchClinton42.425,682
Upper Marlboro BranchBranchUpper Marlboro40.210,500

Prince George's County Memorial in numbers, FY 2024

Visits
1,359,608
Physical checkouts
1,721,283
…of children's materials
1,051,621
Electronic checkouts
985,944
…of e-books
406,890
…of e-audio
429,728
Registered users
624,938
Program sessions
6,037
Program attendance
133,756
Print volumes
479,073
Audio items (physical)
14,860
Video items (physical)
41,211
Public computers
811
Public service hours, all outlets
41,198
Paid staff (full-time equivalent)
377.1
Operating spending
$39.9 million
…on books and other materials
$2.4 million
Overdue fines on print items
not charged

Where Prince George's County Memorial gets its operating money

Operating revenue came to $39.8 million, or $41.64 per resident. The local-government share is close to the combined share for the 24 profiled systems in Maryland. Federal money made up 1.1% of the total.

This system70%28%All profiled systems in Maryland71%17%
This system70%28%All profiled systems in Maryland71%17%
  • Local government
  • State
  • Federal
  • Other (fines, fees, gifts, grants)

Prince George's County Memorial since FY 2019

Visits were 43% below the FY 2019 count of 2.4 million (size-class median: −30%). Physical checkouts moved 50% down over the same span.

FY 2019 = 100406080100FY 2019FY 2023FY 2024
FY 2019 = 100406080100FY 2019FY 2023FY 2024
  • Visits
  • Physical checkouts

Who comes to Prince George's County Memorial programs

Programs for children up to age 11 drew 63% of all program attendance, and sessions averaged 22 people each.

Children 0–1184,405Young adults 12–1822,297Adults 19+25,885General interest1,169
Children 0–1184,405Young adults 12–1822,297Adults 19+25,885General interest1,169

County libraries of similar size in other states

Of these six systems, four record more visits per resident than this one. The highest checkout rate in the group belongs to Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library in Ohio.

SystemBased inResidentsVisits per residentCheckouts per residentSpending per resident
Columbus Metropolitan LibraryColumbus, OH971,9305.639.76$85.18
Buffalo and Erie County Public LibraryBuffalo, NY954,2360.731.06$34.33
Salt Lake County LibraryWest Jordan, UT926,6673.049.72$55.74
Kern County LibraryBakersfield, CA888,0740.790.85$11.75
Fort Bend County LibrariesRichmond, TX873,8161.973.56$26.25
Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public LibraryCincinnati, OH830,6394.9315.34$87.83

Nearest in size within Maryland

All profiled systems in Maryland