Celebrating 80 years of service in 2025, the Harford County Public Library enters the new year with resolutions of strengthening its public education efforts and returning to pre-pandemic visitation numbers.

Library CEO Mary Hastler reflected on the library’s annual report for 2024 on Tuesday and said she was satisfied with the 776,298 recorded visits to local branches .

“We’ve always had really strong workshops, classes and story time events in Harford County; people like coming to our activities,” Hastler said. “I’m always pleased to see that [number], and our circulation was good this year, too, almost back to pre-pandemic levels, which I was very doubtful of that ever happening again.”

A total of 1,856,028 adult books and 1,291,419 children’s books were checked out last year. Hastler said she hopes these numbers will continue to rise as the public library looks to bolster its educational services and pushes for a resurgence in physical books in 2025.

“Our emphasis right now is our books, and our reading and literacy,” Hastler said. “It frightened me when I read that college students can’t read a whole book and actually do a report on it — and that’s when they’re in college.”

Hastler said she and Harford County Public Schools Superintendent Sean Bulson had several discussions about the issue of illiteracy in the school system and considered whether an increased reliance on technology is the cause. She also noted that the library intends to educate its visitors this year about the use of artificial intelligence.

“AI is exploding right now, so we are trying to figure out how to weave it in what we do every day, but also educate our customers on it, because it’s here. The reactions to AI when I talk about it go from, ‘Oh, this is the coolest thing,’ to ‘Oh, my God, it’s doomsday, it’s the end of the world.’ I remind folks that when the internet came 20 years ago, everybody had the same reaction,” she said.

The public library hopes to promote the circulation of physical books this year by increasing the number of authors who visit branches to discuss books and sign copies for visitors. The library also compiles monthly reports to determine which titles are most popular so that more copies can be made available at every branch.

Hastler noted that wholesalers have been slower to distribute new releases to libraries since the pandemic but that the Harford library system is working to fix this issue during the next year so books can arrive as soon as possible.

On its website, the public library publishes “book rivers” which preview upcoming releases and popular titles. Before 2024 ended, the library published a book river for its most popular print and digital titles over the span of the year. Leading both lists was “The Women,” by Kristin Hannah.

“When ‘The Women’ came out, it was very intriguing because it’s set during the Vietnam War and focuses on women who fought in the war and their stories,” Hastler said. “It’s refreshing because I don’t think that time period, or the women in particular, have been covered extensively in fiction.”

“It does not surprise me that it was our top book, both in print and nonprint formats, because it’s amazing. I’m just waiting for the movie to come out,” she said.

Here’s a list of the most checked-out books in Harford libraries in 2024:

  • “The Women,” by Kristin Hannah
  • “A Calamity of Souls,” by David Baldacci
  • “Camino Ghosts,” by John Grisham
  • “Funny Story,” by Emily Henry
  • “Mind Games,” by Nora Roberts
  • “The #1 Lawyer,” by James Patterson
  • “The Truth About the Devlins,” by Lisa Scottoline
  • “Swan Song,” by Elin Hilderbrand
  • “Think Twice,” by Harlan Coben
  • “Still See You Everywhere,” by Lisa Gardner

The most-borrowed digital titles in 2024 were:

  • “The Women,” by Kristin Hannah
  • “Iron Flame,” by Rebecca Yarros
  • “Fourth Wing,” by Rebecca Yarros
  • “Funny Story,” by Emily Henry
  • “First Lie Wins,” by Ashley Elston
  • “None of This is True,” by Lisa Jewell
  • “The Five-Star Weekend,” by Elin Hilderbrand
  • “It Starts With Us,” by Colleen Hoover
  • “Just for the Summer,” by Abby Jimenez
  • “It Ends With Us,” by Colleen Hoover

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