by Kate Lasky
A year's library use by the numbers
-----------------------------------
9,849 computer sessions
20,208 volunteer hours
29,445 active library cardholders
238,183 physical items borrowed
66,899 ebooks/audiobooks
Something is happening with reading in Josephine County, and it doesn't look quite the same as what is happening across the country.
Over the past month, I've been compiling Josephine Community Library's annual report for the fiscal year spanning July 2025 through June 2026. What strikes me most is the contrast between our local data and the national conversation about reading.
Library use in Josephine County is steadily increasing. At the same time, national reading scores are declining, and each month seems to bring another article about America's "reading recession." From the Los Angeles Times to the Associated Press, national media spent much of May declaring a reading crisis.
In contrast, our local public library has recorded consistent growth in not only the number of items checked out, but also in program attendance. This year, visits to the four library branches increased by 30%. Residents borrowed 305,082 physical and digital items, an increase of 4% over the previous year. Ebook and audiobook checkouts increased from 61,978 to 66,899 and the number of active library cardholders grew from 25,725 to 29,445.
At the same time, The Nation's Report Card shows that both fourth and eighth grade students scored lower on national reading tests in 2025. Recently, Thomas Kane, coauthor of the Education Recovery Scorecard (a research project led by researchers at Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth) said, "The pandemic was just the mudslide that followed seven years of steady erosion in student achievement."
Commentators cite increased screen time and absenteeism as major causes, especially in high poverty areas. Beginning last year, at least 30 states--including Oregon--have banned cell phone use in schools.
In a recent cover story in The Atlantic titled "The Age of Reading Is Over," Rose Horowitch said that access to information is no longer the central problem. Books and other texts are more available than ever. "What we're losing," she wrote, "is the ability and inclination to read those texts."
The contrast between what is happening locally and nationally matters. One measure does not negate the other and declining reading scores are troubling. But Josephine County engagement in libraries and reading is also real. It shows that what Horowitch called a "postliterate future" is not an inevitability.
Local library statistics tell us that people are borrowing books, listening to audiobooks and attending programs. What they don't tell us is how well someone comprehends a difficult text or whether a child is reading at grade level.
The truth may lie in our definition of literacy and how that applies to lifelong learning. While test scores reveal proficiency, literacy is broader. It includes reading, writing, speaking, and listening. It means applying information to solve real problems and using language to participate in work and community life.
If reading is declining in America, public libraries are a stronghold of literacy in all its forms--and Josephine Community Library offers proof.
Audiobook use has surged at our library, with more digital and physical audiobook checkouts than in any previous year--people are listening to their books as they drive, exercise, or do household chores. Adult program attendance has also increased, with 1,723 adults attending 115 programs, a 13% increase over last year.
In fact, locally, we are breaking summer reading records.
For the first time since 2011, more than 1,000 people have registered for the Summer Reading Program, with 1,204 participants so far. Even more encouraging, at least 30% of those readers are adults, the highest number recorded in the past decade.
Those participants are also reporting more time spent reading. In 2023, summer readers logged 331,00 minutes of reading over the entire program. This summer, they have already logged 690,000 minutes, with two weeks still to go.
You might not expect this kind of growth in one of Oregon's most impoverished rural communities. Josephine County's poverty rate is about 18% higher than the rest of the state according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Yet more residents in our community are visiting the library, borrowing books and joining the Summer Reading Program.
Children may learn how to read at school, but they learn to become readers from the adults around them. We read aloud. We bring books home. We visit the library. We show that reading is worth our time.
Libraries provide access and opportunity, but adults turn those opportunities into lifelong habits. Reading does not perpetuate itself. Communities do that.
Yes, national reading scores are declining. And, local library use is growing. Those truths can exist at the same time. Together they show us that communities can change the outcome.
Investing in libraries is worth every dime because the return is measured in readers.
And here in Josephine County, reading is happening.