I realize this isn't normal, but I really looked forward to reviewing last year's library statistics.

Here's the first big number: for the first time in our history, we checked out over 4 million items. We are now very close (within a couple hundred thousand) to the levels of activity of Arapahoe and Jefferson County, both of which are larger than we are.

I have called the directors of both library systems to put them on notice. Heh heh.

Here's a broad breakdown of our checkouts in 2004: