Santa Ana Public Library
Santa Ana Public Library is a municipal public library system based in Santa Ana (Orange County), California, serving a legal service area of 310,797 residents through six library buildings and one bookmobile. Among profiled systems serving 250,000 to 499,999 residents, it ranks last for weekly open hours per outlet and third-lowest for visits per resident and records the second-steepest decline in visits since FY 2019.
By population served it is the 24th-largest of the 170 profiled systems in California. Against the median system of its size class, it records only 15% of the physical checkouts per resident and only 30% of the print volumes per resident.
Santa Ana against the 122 systems of its size class
Santa Ana, building by building
The four buildings cover 52,043 square feet in total, 0.17 square feet per resident against a median of 0.46 for the size class. The largest building is Santa Ana Public Library at 39,790 square feet; the smallest is El Salvador Community Center at 557. The longest hours are at Santa Ana Public Library, 54 a week.
| Building | Type | Town | Hours a week | Floor area, sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Ana Public Library | Central library | Santa Ana | 54 | 39,790 |
| El Salvador Community Center | Branch | Santa Ana | 19.9 | 557 |
| Garfield Community Center | Branch | Santa Ana | 14.8 | 1,096 |
| Newhope Library Learning Center | Branch | Santa Ana | 46.3 | 10,600 |
| The Knowledge Mobile | Bookmobile | Santa Ana | 17.4 |
Santa Ana in numbers, FY 2024
- Visits
- 110,681
- Physical checkouts
- 160,866
- …of children's materials
- 96,805
- Electronic checkouts
- 61,898
- …of e-books
- 20,841
- …of e-audio
- 33,785
- Registered users
- 205,413
- Program sessions
- 1,371
- Program attendance
- 51,394
- Print volumes
- 116,176
- Audio items (physical)
- 3,837
- Video items (physical)
- 6,474
- Public computers
- 108
- Public service hours, all outlets
- 6,616
- Paid staff (full-time equivalent)
- 50.5
- Operating spending
- $8.1 million
- …on books and other materials
- $836,922
- Overdue fines on print items
- not charged
Where Santa Ana gets its operating money
Operating revenue came to $8.4 million, or $26.92 per resident. The local-government share sits 6 percentage points above the combined share for the 170 profiled systems in California. No federal operating revenue was reported.
- Local government
- State
- Federal
- Other (fines, fees, gifts, grants)
Santa Ana since FY 2019
Visits were 63% below the FY 2019 count of 295,207 (size-class median: −30%). Physical checkouts moved 24% down over the same span.
- Visits
- Physical checkouts
Who comes to Santa Ana programs
Programs for a general audience drew 48% of all program attendance, and sessions averaged 37 people each.
Municipal libraries of similar size in other states
All six of these systems record more visits per resident than this one. The highest checkout rate in the group belongs to Frisco Public Library in Texas.
| System | Based in | Residents | Visits per resident | Checkouts per resident | Spending per resident |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frisco Public Library | Frisco, TX | 225,007 | 5.17 | 13.03 | $31.53 |
| Waco-McLennan County Library | Waco, TX | 224,116 | 1.35 | 2.67 | $24.28 |
| Des Moines Public Library | Des Moines, IA | 221,659 | 4.01 | 3.83 | $51.54 |
| McAllen Public Library | McAllen, TX | 219,148 | 2.15 | 1.78 | $23.92 |
| Bryan+College Station Public Library System | Bryan, TX | 214,807 | 1.52 | 3.03 | $14.33 |
| McKinney Public Library System | McKinney, TX | 213,509 | 2.46 | 6.87 | $20.59 |
Nearest in size within California
- Riverside Public Library · Riverside · 316,690 residents
- Anaheim Public Library · Anaheim · 340,160 residents
- Tulare County Free Library · Visalia · 345,185 residents
- Chula Vista Public Library · Chula Vista · 278,247 residents