AFPL Libraries Ranked by Size of Service Population
Because Fulton County residents are not forbidden to use a library other than the one closest to them, and because by using the Systemwide Holds procedure many citizens can obtain materials from multiple libraires, statistics about the population "officially" served by various facilities must be regarded with caution. However, these service population statistics are used to compute various facility "performance measures" (which in turn influence--at least in theory--facility budgets), and there is some validity to the notion that most people usually use the library closest to them.
A glance at these figures shows alarming imbalances in terms of the number of people different libraries--or, in some cases, certain types of libraries--are expected to serve with the staff and money for collections library administrators currently allocate to them. For example, although the Northeast Regional Library serves the largest number of Fulton County citizens--almost 15% of them--nowhere near 15% of the library's total public service staff are assigned to work there, and Northeast receives nowhere near 15% of the library system's total budget for library materials.
Note: The Powers That Be, while deciding not to assign a service population to the Auburn Avenue Research Library or to the Bookmobile, for some reason did assign a service population to the Central Library-which is also a systemwide resource like Auburn and the Bookmobile.
|
Rank |
Facility |
Facility Type |
|
Served |
| 1 | Northeast | Regional | 125,925 | 14.9% |
| 2 | Roswell | Regional | 64,810 | 7.6% |
| 3 | Sandy Springs | Regional | 58,748 | 6.9% |
| 4 | Buckhead | Area | 45,853 | 5.4% |
| 5 | Alpharetta | Area | 39,285 | 4.6% |
| 6 | Peachtree | Community | 35,952 | 4.2% |
| 7 | South Fulton | Regional | 35,841 | 4.2% |
| 8 | College Park | Community | 33,662 | 4.0% |
| 9 | Southwest | Regional | 32,399 | 3.8% |
| 10 | Ponce de Leon | Area | 31,862 | 3.8% |
| 11 | Adams Park | Community | 31,011 | 3.7% |
| 12 | West End | Community | 24,238 | 2.9% |
| 13 | Washington Park | Community | 24,238 | 2.9% |
| 14 | Thomasville Heights | Neighborhood | 22,324 | 2.6% |
| 15 | Dogwood | Neighborhood | 21,380 | 2.5% |
| 16 | Fairburn | Community | 21,190 | 2.5% |
| 17 | Northside | Area | 21,044 | 2.5% |
| 18 | Adamsville/Collier Heights | Community | 19,818 | 2.3% |
| 19 | East Point | Area | 18,329 | 2.2% |
| 20 | Cleveland | Community | 18,014 | 2.1% |
| 21 | Central Library | Systemwide | 16,379 | 1.9% |
| 22 | East Atlanta | Neighborhood | 15,689 | 1.9% |
| 23 | Thomasville Heights | Neighborhood | 13,772 | 1.6% |
| 24 | Kirkwood | Community | 12,578 | 1.5% |
| 25 | Georgia-Hill | Neighborhood | 12,501 | 1.5% |
| 26 | Carver Homes | Neighborhood | 11,619 | 1.4% |
| 27 | Perry Homes | Neighborhood | 10,939 | 1.3% |
| 28 | Stewart-Lakewood | Community | 10,155 | 1.2% |
| 29 | Hapeville | Neighborhood | 9,458 | 1.1% |
| 30 | Mechanicsville | Neighborhood | 8,498 | 1.0% |
| 31 | Bowen Homes | Neighborhood | 8,785 | 1.0% |
| 32 | Martin Luther King, Jr. | Neighborhood | 8,466 | 1.0% |
| 33 | Bankhead Courts | Neighborhood | 5,283 | 0.6% |
|
Total: |
845,807 | 100% | ||