Question: Out of the many branch libraries in the Hawaii State Public Library System, which one is the busiest in terms of books and other items loaned out? (P.S. The personnel at all the branches I visit are all very pleasant and helpful.)
Answer: When it comes to the number of books and other library materials circulated in fiscal year 2014, Hawaii island’s Hilo Public Library was No. 1 in the state, with 437,000.
Kapolei Public Library on Oahu was next, with 397,000, according to figures provided by the Hawaii State Public Library System.
Even more significant are the numbers dealing with ebooks, said spokesman Paul H. Mark.
He noted the ebook collection reached a major milestone last year, circulating more than 1 million copies statewide since 2006.
That’s when the HSPLS began a contract with OverDrive Inc., an American digital distributor of ebooks, audiobooks, music and video titles.
"We offer more than 40,000 ebook and audiobook titles from the OverDrive/Digital Library Reserve through our website," librarieshawaii.org, Mark said.
According to the latest HSPLS statistics available, through September 2014, the cumulative total of ebooks checked out was 1,001,738.
In addition to OverDrive ebooks (965,555), the total includes titles from Project Gutenberg (19,683), OneClickdigital, a new audiobook download service (13,938), and a new Korean ebook collection (2,562).
OneClickdigital offers nearly 4,000 fiction titles, Mark said, while the Korean collection also offers 450 paperback books and about 200 DVDs, courtesy of a grant from the government of the Republic of Korea and the Korean Library Foundation.
Meanwhile, in January HSPLS received a special one-year grant from StarWalk Kids Media for free and complete access to a collection of more than 500 streaming children’s ebook titles, available through Dec. 31.
A Changing Resource
Asked how the public libraries have evolved in the face of people’s changing needs and habits, Mark pointed to HSPLS’ Internet Access service.
For fiscal year 2014, Internet Access totaled 723,305 free sessions at the 50 public libraries statewide, an 8 percent increase over the previous year’s 668,625 sessions, while free Wi-Fi access service averaged 1,900 sessions per day, he said.
For magazine readers, HSPLS offers "Zinio for Libraries," the world’s largest newsstand for emagazines, with more than 120 complete full-color digital magazines.
"This popular service has totaled more than 31,000 circulations of top title subscriptions per month," Mark said.
Go to librarieshawaii.org for a complete listing of emagazine titles.
For those doing research, HSPLS’s online database collection, currently numbering more than 80, continued to expand with the addition of 11 foreign languages to "Mango Languages," an online language-learning software system: Cantonese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Hindi, Indonesian, Thai, Portuguese (Brazilian), Swahili, Greek (modern), Hebrew (modern), and Arabic (modern standard).
Mango Languages debuted its Hawaiian language resource in December 2013.
Mark said the libraries are a welcoming place — free and open to all — "designed to meet the educational, informational and cultural needs of our communities."
He encouraged people to visit the libraries to find out what they have to offer.
Mahalo
To an anonymous young lady. While dining in Ruby Tuesday Mililani, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that someone had taken care of our check. We are a senior couple and never expected someone, in a random act of kindness, would give such a truly heartwarming gift to us. May God bless that young lady and may her days be filled with love and happiness. — Ray and Maggie
Write to "Kokua Line" at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
