Sinking Spring, Wernersville libraries are among best-used in Berks

by Steve Reinbrecht

Circulation grew at only two Berks County libraries from 2014 to 2015 – and one is in Southwestern Berks County.

While the number of items circulated in the entire Berks library system dropped 6 percent, Sinking Spring Library’s circulation grew 1.9 percent, from 68,292 to 69,605 items – 190 a day.

From 2014 to 2015, among Berks libraries, only Schuylkill Valley Library’s circulation grew more than Sinking Spring’s, by 7.1 percent. Every other branch saw circulation decline.

But circulation alone is a poor way to judge activity and value at a library. These days, libraries are much more than places to borrow books. They provide access to the Internet and help navigating it. They have vast collections of TV shows, movies, documentaries and music. They have lively people who conduct classes and community activities. You can apply for a passport at the Sinking Spring branch.

See the data from Berks County Public Libraries: 2014, 2015, municipal support.

Although its circulation increased just a smidgen, Sinking Spring Library had 27 percent more visits in 2015 over 2014. As a whole, Berks’ number of visits dropped slightly.

Sinking Spring leads the county in how much it contributes to its library based on population. The borough donates $8.23 per resident, way higher than the next most-generous, Hamburg, which gives its library $6.53 per head.

Though Wernersville borough donates an admirable $4.01 per capita to the Wernersville Library, South and Lower Heidelbergs cough up only about a dollar per resident each, leaving that library to get about $1.50 for each resident it serves.

Nevertheless, support from Lower Heidelberg is growing. In 2011, it gave $3,000 to the Wernersville Library, raising that to $6,891 this year, Supervisor Debbie Scull told me.

Libraries in Southwestern Berks are offering more events and activities to keep people of all ages out of trouble. The number of people who went to library programs jumped 41 percent in Wernersville and by 13 percent in Sinking Spring. Program attendance rose about 5 percent across Berks.

Here’s a partial list of what’s offered at the Wernersville library:

• Craft night
• Yoga
• Movie night – such as Disney’s “Descendents”
• Babies and books
• Teen advisory board
• Scrabble club
• Craft night
• Lego club
• Science club
• Preschool story time

Although circulation is generally down, libraries remain crucial places to get answers. Librarians in Sinking Spring fielded more than twice as many reference questions in 2015 than they did in 2014. Questions to the Wernersville Library rose by 160 percent. Across Berks, the number of reference questions to its libraries jumped 16.5 percent, Google be damned.

So many people need the computers in libraries that in many branches, they have to take turns. Over the year, computer usage rose in Sinking Spring by 30 percent. In Wernersville’s and Spring Township’s two libraries, computer usage rose by about 12 percent. In Berks libraries overall, computer usage rose more slowly, about 4 percent in 2015.