The Stanislaus County Library continues to be a resource for residents of all ages, according to the library’s annual report, which was presented to the Turlock City Council on Tuesday by Turlock Library Branch Manager Diane Bartlett.

Throughout the Stanislaus County Library system, over 2 million people visited a branch of the library in the 2015-2016 fiscal year and over 350,000 visited the Turlock branch of the library — the second busiest library in the system.

“In the last year or so we installed door counters,” said Bartlett.

Turlockers don’t just visit the library, they also check out books. According to Bartlett, 82 percent of the population own a library card.

Preschool-age story times continue to be popular, as 34,931 children attended 1,129 programs in the 13 library branches. Over 5,800 children attended the 154 story times held at the Turlock Library in 2015-2016.

The library created a new position dedicated to providing early literacy services out in the community, such as a Pop-Up Library at the local WIC office (Women, Infants and Children nutrition program).

The library is also reaching patrons through a variety of media — eBooks, eMagazines, online language learning and downloadable audiobooks, movies and music. The library also offered expanded training opportunities to help customers make the most of electronic resources with a series of online tutorials developed by library staff and funded by a grant received from the California State Library under the Library Services and Technology Act.

 For those who prefer traditional formats, our print collection continues to connect readers with the best in fiction and non-fiction selections. Additional LSTA grants enabled the library to offer a series of citizenship/naturalization workshops, to digitize local memories of our region’s cruising and car culture, and to expand children’s programming in science, technology, engineering, arts and math STEAM.) An important focus for the library is early literacy and we continue to offer a variety of popular programming, including Story Time, designed to help children prepare for success in school while having fun. We know some families can’t get to the library due to transportation issues, so we created a new position dedicated to providing early literacy services out in the community. Among the many success stories associated with this new approach to outreach is a Pop-Up Library at the local WIC office (Women, Infants and Children nutrition program).