Forsyth County Library usage is rebounding post-pandemic

Library usage is on the rise again in Forsyth County, after the pandemic led to a 40% drop in borrowing. 

Data from Forsyth County Public Library shows patrons checked out books 985,727 times last year, nearly 186,000 more than in 2021. This year’s figure is still about 24% lower than 2019’s numbers. But public information officer Nicole Harterink says that doesn’t necessarily mean fewer people are using the library. 

“Our digital checkout system has been very robust,” she says. “We've had that for about 18 years, and it's continued to rise."

Use of Libby, the library's checkout system for ebooks and audiobooks, is up about 60% over 2019.

The kinds of books Forsyth County residents check out have remained consistent though. Political thrillers by authors like John Grisham and David Baldacci have dominated the library’s top 10 lists over the last five years. Even the author’s older works have made the list. 

Harterink says that might be because their fans are going through their backlog, or it could be because fewer new releases are available. 

“We can't buy as many books as we used to,” she says. “Our budgets have stayed the same as costs have gone up. So we maybe can't buy as many copies of the latest John Grisham thriller as we could years before.”

Harterink notes that patrons can always use NC Cardinal, the library’s statewide borrowing system, to check out books that their local libraries don’t have.