Across the country, urban library use is booming says a new national study, and that's also true here in Buffalo. The new Pew Foundation report says library use is booming in cities in hard economic times and good economic times, from problems in Detroit to massive increases in Seattle.
Locally, the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library says it's on the good side, with sharp increases in everything from e-books to helping the unemployed learn how to attach a re-designed resume to an e-mailed job application.
Library director Mary Jean Jakubowski says if the library were open more hours, there would be more people stationed at computer keyboards.
"This past year, in 20-12, our computer usage was up by 1.8-percent which is a significant increase, especially with the lessened open hours that we had during 2012. We really are reaching capacity of what we have. So we are looking at that as we look at every single service we provide," said Jakubowski.
It's not unusual to visit a library computer room and find every computer in use.
