The Washington County Library Association presented their annual report to the Washington County Board of Supervisors Tuesday discussing the use of services in the county. County Library Directors presented data from the previous year with over 110,000 visitors at the three libraries in Washington County.

Cary Geno, Director of Wellman Public Library, talked about the new flex share program offered by the Library Association and its benefits, “With the support of the county we have circulation programs that allow us to do a program called flex share. Flex share allows anyone with a library card to come to any library (within the county) to check out their materials. So, someone with a Wellman library card can go to Washington or Kalona and have access to their collections. We can also request items from the other libraries for our patrons. This gives our patrons access to a broader variety of titles and materials, it also allows us to be better stewards of our funding and budget. So, instead of having unnecessary duplications of materials, we are able to access the entire collection within the county. So, this cooperation between the three libraries also builds community, so instead of being three separate entities we are a county library system working together with the shared mission of serving the public.” 

The Washington Public Library saw over 70,000 visitors last year, and facilitated 653 programs. Washington Library patrons saved $574,755 on physical materials, and $251,350 on digital materials. The Wellman Public Library saw 9,697 visitors, and the Kalona Public Library had 31,076 visitors last year.