Putnam County Library
Putnam County Library is a county public library system based in Hurricane (Putnam County), West Virginia, serving a legal service area of 57,440 residents through five library buildings. Among profiled systems in West Virginia, it ranks third for physical checkouts, third for public computers and seventh for population served and records the largest gain in physical checkouts since FY 2019.
Against the median system of its size class, it records only 46% of the operating spending per resident and only 48% of the program attendance per resident.
Putnam County against the 559 systems of its size class
Putnam County since FY 2019
Visits were 19% below the FY 2019 count of 84,749 (size-class median: −29%). Physical checkouts moved 82% up over the same span.
- Visits
- Physical checkouts
Who comes to Putnam County programs
Programs for children up to age 11 drew 74% of all program attendance, and sessions averaged 18 people each.
Putnam County in numbers, FY 2024
- Visits
- 68,672
- Physical checkouts
- 327,488
- Electronic checkouts
- 48,216
- …of e-books
- 22,009
- …of e-audio
- 21,676
- Registered users
- 53,428
- Program sessions
- 446
- Program attendance
- 8,039
- Print volumes
- 118,593
- Audio items (physical)
- 5,138
- Video items (physical)
- 10,534
- Public computers
- 44
- Public service hours, all outlets
- 9,204
- Paid staff (full-time equivalent)
- 14.0
- Operating spending
- $962,083
- …on books and other materials
- $123,146
- Overdue fines on print items
- not charged
Where Putnam County gets its operating money
Operating revenue came to $827,942, or $14.41 per resident. The local-government share sits 6 percentage points below the combined share for the 96 profiled systems in West Virginia. No federal operating revenue was reported.
- Local government
- State
- Federal
- Other (fines, fees, gifts, grants)
Putnam County, building by building
The five buildings cover 18,341 square feet in total, 0.32 square feet per resident against a median of 0.62 for the size class. The largest building is Putnam County Library at 9,841 square feet; the smallest is Buffalo at 1,900. The longest hours are at Putnam County Library, 53 a week.
| Building | Type | Town | Hours a week | Floor area, sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Putnam County Library | Central library | Hurricane | 53 | 9,841 |
| Buffalo | Branch | Buffalo | 4 | 1,900 |
| Eleanor | Branch | Eleanor | 40 | 2,600 |
| Hurricane | Branch | Hurricane | 40 | 2,000 |
| Poca | Branch | Poca | 40 | 2,000 |
County libraries of similar size in other states
Of these six systems, four record 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pickaway Cnty District Public Library | Circleville, OH | 58,539 | 1.71 | 3.76 | $36.57 |
| Briggs Lawrence County Public Library | Ironton, OH | 58,066 | 1.40 | 2.90 | $43.11 |
| Vermilion Parish Library | Abbeville, LA | 57,641 | 1.49 | 0.81 | $26.23 |
| Elizabethton Carter County Public Library | Elizabethton, TN | 57,022 | 0.77 | 0.89 | $10.20 |
| Dickson County Public Library | Dickson, TN | 56,729 | 2.71 | 2.82 | $10.48 |
| Acadia Parish Library | Crowley, LA | 56,604 | 1.14 | 1.12 | $29.17 |
Nearest in size within West Virginia
- Marion County Public Library · Fairmont · 56,205 residents
- Clarksburg-Harrison Public Library · Clarksburg · 52,405 residents
- Craft Memorial Library · Bluefield · 47,538 residents
- Parkersburg/Wood Co. Public Library · Parkersburg · 73,644 residents