The trouble with San Diego Public Library

As a book lover, I regularly visit my local SDPL branch several times each week. Libraries have always been among my favorite places. I love the freedom libraries provide, allowing me to read books I would normally pass up if I had to pay for them myself. (If my books were limited, I would probably stick to genres or authors I already enjoy.) Libraries broaden my knowledge, nourish my imagination, and stimulate my curiosity. The passion that I hold for books and libraries is so intense that I not only belong to SDPL, I also frequently borrow books from several other libraries. Being a card-holding member of several libraries allows me to talk about SDPL from a unique stance. Unlike many of the reviewers who post on Yelp or Facebook, for example, I can compare and contrast library services. 

I gotta say that compared to San Francisco Public Library and Los Angeles Public Library, SDPL seems kind of, um, smelly! Just by comparing and contrasting the number of fiction titles for children, young adults, and adults available through Overdrive really underlines my point.

3.9 million People,
61,675 Fiction Ebooks

837,000 People,
38,551 Fiction Ebooks

1.4 million People,
2771 Fiction Ebooks

San Diego citizens should be outraged, or at least embarrassed(!), by these numbers. San Francisco's overdrive collection is approximately 14x that of San Diego's, and Los Angeles's collection is about 22x that of ours. Sheesh! Is my face red! (Or it would be, if I were a person.) The discrepancy in numbers is even more striking when we take population into account. San Francisco may have fewer people than San Diego, but their collection substantially rivals ours.

To actually do the math here: LA ends up having approximately one ebook for every 63 people. San Francisco, which looks truly exemplary in comparison, still has only one ebook for every 22 people. And San Diego? Pathetically, we boast one ebook for every 505 people. To say these numbers are dreadful is truly an understatement.