FY 2017-2018 Accomplishments

• Added more than 20,000 new items to branch collections, coming to a grand total of 388,930 books, DVDs, CDs, graphic novels, e-books and other materials available for checkout to Escambia County residents.
• Circulation of all library items including electronic uses totaled 1,155,732.
• Reported a total of 544,431 visits, with Escambia County residents checking out items 779,148 times over the year. This includes 18,915 talking books for those with visual impairments.
• 6,135 Escambia County residents signed up for new library cards.
• Adult and teen volunteers donated 6,448 hours assisting at West Florida Public Libraries.
• Jazz Pensacola donated $1,000 to West Florida Public Libraries for new materials for Pensacola Library’s Jazz Room. Friends of West Florida Public Library donated $29,322, and Friends of the Southwest Branch Library donated $16,621.
• Hosted 1,603 programs, including story times, book clubs, performances, tech classes and other events, with an attendance of 48,241 citizens.
• Library staff taught 440 tech courses to the public over the year with an attendance of 8,620.
• Library computers and Wi-Fi connections were used in 147,343 sessions.
• STEAM had 458 programs with a total attendance of 12,520.
• STEAM added a variety of new programs to reach more preschool, teen and adult audiences. Summer STEAM offered two programming tracks: One focusing on technology, which included new robots and coding sessions, and the other track focusing on hands-on creativity through making musical instruments. 
• A new chess club and art sessions were added to STEAM programming, and weekly outreach programs focused on robots and coding were started at two community centers: Brownsville and Carver Park. 
• Held weekly after school reading program at Ebonwood Community Center.
• Summer reading club 2018 ran from May 29 to Aug. 4 for children from newborn to 17 years old, with sign-ups totaling 2,644. More than 100 prizes were given out, including fire truck rides to school through a partnership with Escambia County Fire Rescue. 
• As a new program this summer, WFPL partnered with nonprofit organization Feeding the Gulf Coast to provide 2,264 meals to children at Pensacola Library, Molino Branch Library and Century Branch Library.
• Pensacola Library hosted Bike Pensacola’s Slow Ride, drawing 250 participants to raise awareness of bicyclists and offer information about bicycle laws, safety and more.
• West Florida Public Libraries launched a redesigned website in July at mywfpl.com. The revamped site was created to provide a user-friendly experience that makes it simpler than ever for residents to access information about the library system from their computer, tablet or mobile phone.The website had 1,371,360 page views in the past year.
• West Florida Public Libraries Facebook page received 640 new page likes. 
• Library staff answered 176,191 questions from citizens (all modes of interaction; email, phone, etc.) Of those questions, 27,841 were phone calls.
• Meeting rooms at the libraries were utilized for non-library, community events 1,545 times with an attendance of more than 36,226 people.