Luring readers with tacos

SUMMIT COUNTY - Reading nourishes the soul, and this week it satisfies the stomach, too.

In celebration of National Library Week, anyone who visits a Summit County library and tells the librarians about what they're reading will receive a free coupon to Taco Bell.

"We usually focus our activities around kids, but this is a way to treat adults," said Joyce Dierauer, library director.

Last year, the three libraries in Summit County served approximately 152,930 people and loaned 146,699 items.

Its 307 children's programs attracted 8,023 kids and adults.

"We do a lot of children's programs because we want them to be lifelong users," said Vanessa Woodford, manager of the North Branch in Silverthorne.

Woodford said it's becoming increasingly more important to draw attention to resources libraries offer because it levels the playing field between socioeconomic groups.

"We're here to do a lot of things," Dierauer said. "It's not just about recreational reading. We're here to help people start a business, to research health problems, to plan a trip, to learn a new sport. We were hammered over spring break with people planning vacations."

Last September, state libraries launched a new question-and-answer program called Ask Colorado.

People can log onto www.askcolorado.org and ask a librarian a research-oriented question. Usually within 15 minutes, a librarian will send Internet links, magazine articles and other related information.

The program runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Dierauer works on the site from 9-11 a.m. every Friday, joining 215 other librarians statewide who take shifts. In the last week, she has answered questions ranging from Caribbean cooking recipes and European history prior to World War I to the best places to shop in Highlands Ranch.

But some information is just a trip to the library away.

Summit County libraries have 108,658 items. It added 6,500 items last year, including books on CD.

The budget of more than $900,000 in funding remained the same as last year, but Dierauer pointed out costs of materials increase and the libraries' funding decreased by 5 percent in 2002.

The Friends of the Library, a nonprofit organization, raises money through events like the used book sale that took place Friday and Saturday.

Kimberly Nicoletti can be reached at (970) 668-3998, ext. 245, or by e-mail at knicoletti@summitdaily.com.

10 Surprising Facts About Libraries

1. The United States has more public libraries than McDonald's franchises.

2. U.S. libraries circulate more items every day than FedEx ships packages (5.4 million vs. 5.3 million).

3. U.S. public library cardholders

outnumber Amazon customers by almost 5 to 1.

4. Americans go to libraries more than twice as often as they go to the movies.

5. Americans spend more than three times as much on salty snacks as they do on public libraries.

6. Libraries hold 16 billion books worldwide.

7. Libraries record more than 1.1

billion visits each year, compared to 204 million sports tickets sold in a year.

8. Students visit school library media centers almost 1.5 billion times during the school year.

9. Americans spend seven times as much money on home video games as they do on school library materials for their children.

10. College and university librarians answer 97 million reference questions each year.

- Information provided by Summit County libraries