Fairfax Co. library records 10M loans in 2022
Fairfax County Public Library is on track to notch just over 10 million loans in 2022, and is once again among a handful of libraries nationwide with more than 2 million digital checkouts. Among those 10 million loans, Fairfax Co. readers had a few favorites in particular.
The top circulating title was “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig, a 2020 novel about “a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality.” Haig’s book was the top electronic checkout in both books and audiobooks.
On the physical media side, adults were big fans of John Grisham’s “The Judge’s List,” a sequel to 2016’s “The Whistler” that follows the ongoing exploits of a fictional investigator for the Florida Board of Judicial Conduct.
For non-fiction, the top checkout was “Crying in H-Mart” by Michelle Zauner, a memoir by the lead singer of indie pop band Japanese Breakfast detailing her Korean-American upbringing.
Kids were big fans of Dav Pilkey’s “Fetch-22,” a book in his ongoing Dog Man series (Pilkey is the author of the well-beloved Captain Underpants series). Meanwhile, teenagers were drawn to “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” by Suzanne Collins, a prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy with an upcoming film adaptation expected in 2023.
Fairfax County saw an increase of nearly 100,000 active library accounts from fiscal year 2020 to 2021, according to adopted budget plans for FY2022 and FY2023. In-person visits to the library over that same time dropped dramatically, from 3.1 million visits in FY2020 to just 1.2 million visits in FY2021. Use of the library’s online resources remained level, with around 38 million visits each year.
You can learn more about the library and its resources on its website.