By Anna Pier
Lisa Musgrove, Manager of the Sonoma Valley Regional Library, is delighted with the big jump in average monthly visits in 2018. Compared to the 11,000 average for 2013-2017, during this past year average visits to the West Napa Street site rose by 2000 to 13,000 a month. Musgrove attributes the higher numbers to the increased accessibility from expanded library hours. Starting in mid-2017, the library added six hours to its weekly schedule, so it is open for forty-six hours, a thirteen per cent increase.
“The library serves everyone and is a reflection of the community,” she said. “As is typical with libraries everywhere, the heavy users are families with children, and elders.” The local manager explained that her dream for 2019, that library hours will continue to expand, is also the biggest challenge she faces for the year.
Musgrove continued, “Expanding the hours of the library is on the priority list for library administration and the Library Commission for the 2019-20 fiscal year.” People who would like to advocate for enhanced hours can contact Sonoma Valley’s Library Commissioner, Tom Haeuser, at thaeuser@sonomalibrary.org.
What titles were most popular with Valley readers in 2018?
The central library’s tech staff put together for the Sun the lists below, based on checkouts of the holdings at the local branch. The Woman In The Window and A Gentleman In Moscow were the novels most popular with adult readers. In nonfiction, interest in the origins of the FBI led the list with Killers of the Flower Moon, followed by the new biography of Leonardo Da Vinci and a memoir by Tara Westover, Educated. In the children’s fiction category, six out of ten of the most-checked titles were in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, and five out of the ten titles most selected by young adult readers were Harry Potter volumes.
| Rank | Top Fiction Book Titles |
| 1 | The Woman in the Window : A Novel / A.J. Finn |
| 2 | A Gentleman in Moscow / Amor Towes |
| 3 | The Great Alone / Kristin Hannah |
| 4 | Little Fires Everywhere / Celeste Ng |
| 5 | Unbound : A Stone Barrington Novel / Stuart Woods |
| 6 | Manhattan Beach : A novel / Jennifer Egan |
| 7 | Camino Island / John Grisham |
| 8 | Homegoing / Yaa Gyasi |
| 9 | The President is Missing / James Patterson & Bill Clinton |
| 10 | The Midnight Line / Lee Child |
 Rank |
Top Non-Fiction Titles |
| 1 | Killers of the Flower Moon : The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI |
| 2 | Leonardo da Vinci / Walter Isaacson |
| 3 | Educated : A Memoir / Tara Westover |
| 4 | A Higher Loyalty : Truth, Lies, and Leadership / James Comey |
| 5 | Fear : Trump in the White House / Bob Woodward |
 Rank |
Top Titles of Children’s Fiction Books |
| 1 | Diary of a Wimpy Kid. [5], The Ugly Truth / Jeff Kinney |
| 2 | The Getaway / Jeff Kinney |
| 3 | Dog Man and Cat Kid / Dav Pilkey |
| 4 | Smile / Raina Telgemeier |
| 5 | Diary of a Wimpy Kid. [11], Double Down / Jeff Kinney |
 Rank |
Top Titles of Young Adult Fiction |
| 1 | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets / J.K. Rowling |
| 2 | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone / J.K. Rowling |
| 3 | The Hate U Give / Angie Thomas |
| 4 | The Giver / Lois Lowry |
| 5 | The Lost Hero / |
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