FAIRFAX, VA – On Friday, July 7, 2023, Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) officially reach 20 million all-time digital checkouts. The 20 millionth checkout came at approximately 11:02 a.m., when a library cardholder borrowed “Crying in H Mart” by Michelle Zauner. Just a few seconds later, the library had already secured loan number 20,000,001.  

“We are excited to kick off summer with our 20 millionth digital checkout,” said Dianne Coan, FCPL’s Director of Technical Operations, who oversees the development of both the digital and physical collections. “With more people on the go, we are now serving around 60,000 unique digital users each month and our circulation reflects that.” 

FCPL has offered a digital catalog to its cardholders for about 18 years and reached its one millionth checkout in 2015. The library utilizes Overdrive and its mobile application Libby to provide 24/7 access to their digital collection, which includes eBooks, eAudiobooks and eMagazines. Readers can now access titles whenever and wherever they want using any major device, making digital materials more popular than ever.  

While reader interest in digital materials has been increasing steadily over the years, FCPL has seen exponential growth since 2019, with circulation more than doubling in the three-and-a-half-year period. To meet this demand, FCPL collections staff has been hard at work expanding the digital collection to include more titles, as well as additional licenses for popular titles, with the goal of reducing long wait times. This work has been supported in recent years by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, who recently approved a $300,000 increase to the library’s collection budget, as well as the Friends of Reston Regional Library, who donated $200,000 to the library in June of 2022 to support the development of both the digital and physical collections. 

FCPL’s digital collection is available for free to anyone who has a Fairfax County Public Library card. More information about the collection and how to access it can be found here.