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Chattanooga Public Library sees nearly 250% return on taxpayer investment, director says

Staff photo by Olivia Ross / New books sit on a display in the tweens and teens department at Chattanooga Public Library's downtown branch on Dec. 30, 2022. Staff photo by Olivia Ross / New books sit on a display in the tweens and teens department at Chattanooga Public Library's downtown branch on Dec. 30, 2022.

By Ben Sessoms April 16, 2024 2 min read

Chattanooga taxpayers have seen a nearly 250% return on investment from the public library this fiscal year, said Will O’Hearn, executive director of the Chattanooga Public Library, during a presentation to the City Council on Tuesday.

According to O’Hearn’s presentation, the city allocated $7.6 million to the public library for fiscal year 2024. The value added to the community from library resources, O’Hearn said, totals more than $18 million in money people saved by checking out materials.

O’Hearn said that return on investment was measured by looking at the concrete value the library offered.

“We want to just do things that you could hold in your hand or find a commercially analogous example,” O’Hearn said. “We want to cut all the fat.”