The Cairns community loves its libraries

More than 965,000 loan transactions, almost 700,000 visits, and 441,778 hours of internet use, were recorded by Cairns Libraries in 2022/23 financial year.

A report benchmarking Council’s library services for 2022/23 against similar local government areas, including Townsville, Ipswich, Toowoomba and Redland, was tabled at Council today.

It revealed that membership to Cairns Libraires increased by more than 6,000, bringing it to a total of 45,554, representing approximately 27% of the Cairns population.

There were 699,458 physical library visits recorded, and the number of attendees at programs and events held at Cairns Libraries was 43,799.

Cairns Libraries received $841,639 in State Government public library funding in 2022/23, which assisted with the acquisition of almost 42,000 new physical items, increasing the collection to 154,552 items.

Total loans, including physical and digital items, was 965,057, and internet usage hours was 441,778, the most when compared with the other Council’s including in the benchmarking exercise.

Wi-Fi usage was 104,426 hours, second on the list behind Ipswich (231,236).