What Does Your South Lake Tahoe Library Mean to You?

Does it provide an array of books that are available at your fingertips?

Does it provide children's story times and age appropriate books?

Does is offer free public computers?

Whatever it means to you, the South Lake Tahoe library keeps providing what the community needs and is always evolving to be what is needed for the future. Over the next few weeks we'll be looking into the library, its services, and how it fills a need in the community and how June's Measure L affects its future.

The library of the 21st century was shown at a recent South Lake Tahoe library presentation to the community.

In this day and age of the internet, e-readers and google, some may have thought that libraries were on their way out, but nothing could be further than the truth.

Research indicates that libraries are important to people and communities and that they show an extremely very high level of support according to Jeanne Amos, Director of El Dorado County Library.

National surveys show that 91% surveyed say libraries are important to their community and 76% say libraries are important to them and families. With over 300,000 new titles published last year, an ever increasing audience of young readers as well as seasoned, mature readers are still enjoying their local library and the new services they offer.

62% of young adult readers choose traditional books over e-books and the Harry Potter series of books is responsible for the pop culture popularity of the library.

Libraries also saw an increase of users during the recession due to the fact that library books are free. In 2012, there were 130,868 books checked out in South Lake Tahoe, a 23% increase from 2002.

Besides being a home for books, libraries are used for a multitude of purposes: early learning centers, community gathering places, preservation of local history, DVDs, CDs, iPads, story time kits, beyond school kits, numerous online resources such as the ability to learn a language online.