My LINKcat AccountBy the time you're reading this the big event shall probably have already happened. Library staff was doing a workroom countdown to the five millionth (That's the number "5" followed, by six zeros.) check out since this library was automated. This new circulation system has many interesting features, one of which is that we get daily statistics, oh, about twice a week. This makes it rather difficult to do a countdown. We were going along at a steady pace and then suddenly, we were almost at the 5 millionth checkout mark without much lead time at all to publicize the event. So I guess I'll just do that now. When we hit that magical mark something shall have fallen from the sky - such as confetti, or bubbles-- upon the unsuspecting person who checked out the five millionth item. A prize shall have been awarded and cake shall have been served. This may have happened on Monday, May 14th depending on the daily statistics we get for Thursday through Sunday. Monday looked like a likely day last Thursday. Tuesday is a possibility. But I don't believe we shall still be counting down on Wednesday or Thursday. I do believe all the cake will be gone well before you read this. Five million of anything is a big number and checking out that many items in fewer than eight years is an accomplishment. Back in 1994 when we went live on the day after Labor Day, we had 26,381 books and checked out 123,242 items that year. Last year we had 64,232 Books and checked out 421,916. In 1994 we were checking out a lot of Books on Cassette and VHS videos. Today those formats are all but gone from our collection. But we have dvds, Books on MP3 players (and cds) and have an expanding collection of new formats like blu-ray and wii. Anyway, as we put the five millionth check out behind us and gear up for the six millionth, here are some new titles for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!
