Digital Borrowing Surge Lifts Library Totals as Hastings Closure Affects Checkouts

The Pasadena Public Library Commission is scheduled to receive circulation reports Wednesday showing the city’s library system finished Fiscal Year 2025-2026 with more material checked out than the previous year, even after an extended closure at the Hastings Branch Library erased what could have been an additional 26,000 loan bonanza.

The figures, listed on the agenda as information items, show a system-wide total of 723,905 items circulated in Fiscal Year 2025-2026, up 0.79 percent from 718,245 the year before.

Nearly all of that growth came from digital lending, while circulation at the neighborhood branches fell 3.38 percent for the year.

The Hastings branch, hobbled by construction closures, accounted for the steepest decline. The branch circulated 2,916 items in June, down 78.51 percent from 13,571 in June 2025. The reports note the branch was closed April 7 to 24 for an office remodel and roof replacement, then again from May 27 to July 1 for continued building repairs.

Hastings circulatHastings’the full fiscal year fell to 137,451 from 163,276, a drop of 15.82 percent. July figures show a partial recovery, with 7,561 items circulated, still 44.12 percent below July 2025.

Digital borrowing did the heavy lifting. Ebook and emedia checkouts, a category covering Overdrive, 3M Cloud, Flipster, HoopLa and the Palace Project, reached 16,206 in June, up 45.18 percent over the prior June, and 16,085 in July, an increase of 88.88 percent over July 2025. For the full fiscal year, digital circulation totaled 138,951, up 8.21 percent.

Several neighborhood branches also gained ground. Lamanda Park circulated 9,257 items in June, up 85.85 percent, and the Jefferson Branch rose 52.91 percent to 5,338. La Pintoresca climbed 38.98 percent and Santa Catalina 26.44 percent in the same month. In July, Villa Parke recorded the largest branch increase at 55.68 percent, followed by Lamanda Park at 28.40 percent and Jefferson at 28.23 percent.

Not every branch shared in the gains. Allendale finished the fiscal year down 11.58 percent, at 44,721 items. Linda Vista, which ended the year up 16.62 percent, opened the new fiscal year with a 17.37 percent drop in July, and Hill Avenue slipped 3.75 percent that month. Branch circulation overall totaled 48,543 in July, down 3.63 percent from a year earlier, while the system as a whole rose 11.33 percent to 66,557.

The comparisons carry a caveat residents should keep in mind. The reports note that all Pasadena libraries were closed in January 2025 during wildfire recovery efforts, depressing several of the baseline months against which the current figures are measured.

The reports also note that automatic renewals in the library’s Symphony system are credited to the checkout location rather than counted separately, leaving the web and telephone renewal category at zero for every month in both years.

The Library Commission is a strictly advisory body, and any recommendation it makes would go to the City Council, which retains final authority.

The Pasadena Public Library Commission is scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 19, at the Hastings Branch Library, 3325 E. Orange Grove Blvd., in Pasadena. For more information call (626) 744-4124 or visit https://www.cityofpasadena.net/commissions/agendas/.