COVID makes data interesting, both in the creation of new useful data and in making routine data useless.
Today’s exhibit: the Hamilton Public Library quarterly circulation stats for April, May, and June.
With libraries completely closed for all but a few days at the end of June 2020, the HPL only lent 6.930 physical items in Q2 last year.
This year (2021), they lent 483,554 physical items – an increase of 6877.7%.
In Q2 2019, the HPL lent 1,342,669 items. Current physical circulation is 38% of the last pre-COVID Q2.
Interestingly, the HPL is reporting around 40% of its pre-COVID foot traffic. It will be interesting to see if in-person traffic correlates with physical circulation numbers in the coming months.
The HPL is reporting a decrease in digital circulation, it remains above pre-COVID levels.