BY CHRISTY JEFFERSON
Please check out your libraries!
And please encourage our County Council to keep the recommended library budget and the library millage.
When times are tough for our community, the library is even more important, and we get even busier.
The circulation for our libraries countywide in fiscal year 2021 was approximately 3.1 million items, 2.3 million visits to our website, 125,000 public computer sessions and more than 580,000 Wi-Fi users.
Now that we are coming out of the pandemic, our use is continuing to increase.
While school was out for the summer, more than 371,000 people visited our library branches. Our Volusia County libraries provide a huge economic benefit to all our communities.
Families who can’t afford a computer or an expensive internet provider come every day to job-hunt and learn job skills, do research for school or work or home, take online classes, ask our librarians for help in using a computer, print out forms or apply for government programs, or to find out about early-childhood programs.
We help new Americans learn about their new home and how to function, and new residents learn about their community.
Your library is helping us all stretch our personal budgets. You can listen to popular music or check out the latest movies.
Younger children are entertained and learning at the same time, as one-third of all library users are age 14 and younger. We improve the quality of life by providing a safe place to meet.
— Jefferson, a Deltona resident, is president of the Friends of the Deltona Library.
