Jacob Shymanski

There was a report that came out in January that kind of blew my mind.

It has to do with transaction numbers at the Calgary Public Library.

So apparently, Calgarians checked out 17.5 million books in 2025.

17.5.

11 million of them were physical copies, with the remaining 6.5 million being digital.

17.5 million is a record for Liberian.

Now, I don't know about you guys, but that is a way, way higher number than I was expecting ever.

How freaking bookish is Calgary?

What do I not know about the city?

I mean, I do know that they have a population of roughly 1.6 million that averages out to roughly 10 book checkouts per person per year.

And that's on top of all the other services that it offers.

Public libraries are such a vital resource for so many people.

They're absolutely appreciated and hold a revered place in society, but I think the positive community impact is still hugely underappreciated.

The Calgary Public Library clearly had an incredible 2025, just based on those numbers.

I thought with this in mind, this is a great opportunity to talk about libraries and how they work and what they offer.

Today, I have the perfect person to talk about the impact of libraries, Genevieve Luthi.

She's the Director of Collections at the Calgary Public Library.

This is Audiobook Cafe.

I'm Jacob Szymanski.

Genevieve, thanks for making time.