Number of Decorah Library patrons is up, but circulation is down

More people are visiting the Decorah Public Library--but aparently they're checking out fewer books when they visit.

The 2010-2011 Annual Report from the library says it registered 651 new patrons during the last 12 months.  Those 651 people came from eight different states.  The Decorah Public Library now has 17,546 registered patrons.

During the last 12 months, a total of 156,646 checkouts of 86,574 items took place at the library.  Library officials say that's a slight decline from the previous year.