St. Tammany Parish Library
St. Tammany Parish Library is a county public library system based in Covington (St. Tammany Parish), Louisiana, serving a legal service area of 277,615 residents through 12 library buildings. Among profiled systems in Louisiana, it ranks second for program attendance, fourth for population served, fifth for physical checkouts and sixth for total visits, but ranks second-lowest for library floor space per resident and third-lowest for print volumes per resident.
Against the median system of its size class, it records 73% more program attendance per resident and 35% fewer physical checkouts per resident.
St. Tammany Parish against the 122 systems of its size class
St. Tammany Parish since FY 2019
Visits were 21% below the FY 2019 count of 763,865 (size-class median: −30%). Physical checkouts moved 12% down over the same span.
- Visits
- Physical checkouts
Who comes to St. Tammany Parish programs
Programs for a general audience drew 37% of all program attendance, and sessions averaged 33 people each.
St. Tammany Parish in numbers, FY 2024
- Visits
- 605,932
- Physical checkouts
- 639,671
- …of children's materials
- 214,326
- Electronic checkouts
- 244,351
- …of e-books
- 46,573
- …of e-audio
- 4,974
- Registered users
- 84,260
- Program sessions
- 2,924
- Program attendance
- 96,168
- Print volumes
- 344,067
- Audio items (physical)
- 24,915
- Video items (physical)
- 31,099
- Public computers
- 134
- Public service hours, all outlets
- 31,200
- Paid staff (full-time equivalent)
- 130.5
- Operating spending
- $11.2 million
- …on books and other materials
- $1.4 million
- Overdue fines on print items
- not charged
Where St. Tammany Parish gets its operating money
Operating revenue came to $13.1 million, or $47.04 per resident. The local-government share sits 4 percentage points above the combined share for the 67 profiled systems in Louisiana. No federal operating revenue was reported.
- Local government
- State
- Federal
- Other (fines, fees, gifts, grants)
St. Tammany Parish, building by building
The 12 buildings cover 89,550 square feet in total, 0.32 square feet per resident against a median of 0.46 for the size class. The largest building is Slidell Branch at 22,000 square feet; the smallest is Abita Springs Branch at 1,600. The longest hours, 60 a week, are shared by six buildings.
| Building | Type | Town | Hours a week | Floor area, sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Tammany Parish Library | Central library | Covington | 60 | 18,000 |
| Abita Springs Branch | Branch | Abita Springs | 40 | 1,600 |
| Bush Branch | Branch | Bush | 40 | 1,600 |
| Causeway Branch | Branch | Mandeville | 60 | 7,300 |
| Folsom Branch | Branch | Folsom | 40 | 2,000 |
| Lacombe Branch | Branch | Lacombe | 40 | 1,600 |
| Lee Road Branch | Branch | Covington | 40 | 2,000 |
| Madisonville Branch | Branch | Madisonville | 60 | 15,050 |
| Mandeville Branch | Branch | Mandeville | 60 | 10,000 |
| Pearl River Branch | Branch | Pearl River | 40 | 1,900 |
| Slidell Branch | Branch | Slidell | 60 | 22,000 |
| South Slidell Branch Library | Branch | Slidell | 60 | 6,500 |
County libraries of similar size in other states
Of these six systems, five record more visits per resident than this one. The highest checkout rate in the group belongs to San Mateo County Libraries in California.
| System | Based in | Residents | Visits per resident | Checkouts per resident | Spending per resident |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| York County Library System | Rock Hill, SC | 282,090 | 1.51 | 3.52 | $32.11 |
| Frederick County Public Libraries | Frederick, MD | 279,835 | 3.66 | 8.32 | $69.33 |
| Forsyth County Public Library | Cumming, GA | 279,366 | 2.73 | 8.20 | $34.06 |
| Buncombe County Public Libraries | Asheville, NC | 277,047 | 2.67 | 4.43 | $28.99 |
| San Mateo County Libraries | San Mateo, CA | 273,370 | 6.20 | 8.78 | $159.85 |
| Brown County Library | Green Bay, WI | 273,297 | 2.31 | 4.70 | $26.67 |
Nearest in size within Louisiana
- Lafayette Public Library · Lafayette · 254,241 residents
- Shreve Memorial Library · Shreveport · 224,893 residents
- New Orleans Public Library · New Orleans · 362,701 residents
- Calcasieu Parish Public Library · Lake Charles · 206,861 residents