The Canton Public Library is committed to transparency in all of its operations. This dashboard is intended to provide our community with a snapshot of the library’s 2016 financials, usage, and collection. Thanks to the financial diligence of the library board and staff, we have been carefully managing your tax dollars and making improvements to library collections, programs, and services, as well as to the library facility as the building approaches 30 years of age. In response to patron and staff feedback, in 2016 we completely renovated and updated the Children’s Library, including all new furniture, a more open layout, additional seating, more power outlets, all-new restrooms, and a drinking fountain with bottle-filling capability.

As we move forward in 2017 and beyond, we will continue our diligence in balancing financial constraints with the excellence that our community demands. We are proud to connect the Canton community and appreciate your patronage and support.

Finance

The library's total revenue for 2016 was $5,571,265. The majority of revenue comes from property taxes. The library received $5,196,988 in property taxes.

The library had $5,647,750 in expenditures.

The Endowment Fund total balance at year-end was $395,313.

Employees, including part time, full time, substitutes, and interns, worked a total of 117,787 hours. Volunteers contributed 2,511 hours of volunteer work to the library.

The library employed a total of 94 people. 41 total volunteers offered their time to work at the library.

Library Usage

We welcomed 499,124 visitors through our doors.

There were 60,002 total library card holders. Of those, 80% were Canton Public Library Card holders.

Patrons checked out a total of 1,307,755 items and checked out over 51,800 eBooks. 28% of the items checked out were DVDs, 32% were children's books, and 21% were adult books.

The library has 368,336 items in the collection. 61% of materials at the library are print materials. 14% of the items at the library are DVDs. The library has 61,963 electronic materials, including 11,376 eBooks.

Programs and Outreach

The library held a total of 1,093 programs, with 28,765 people in attendance. Of those programs, 565 were children's programs, and 72 programs were a part of Connect Your Summer.

The library meeting rooms were used outside of library-sponsored programs 69 times over the course of the year.