CW MARS NEWS

The top ten highest circulating titles in CW MARS for 2022 (includes checkouts on physical books, ebooks, audiobooks, and videos) are: The Last Thing He Told Me, The Lincoln Highway, Wish You Were Here, Where the Crawdads Sing, Apples Never Fall, The Four Winds, Cloud Cuckoo Land, It Ends with Us. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. In 2022, we saw a very impressive 2.2 million  checkouts from our CW MARS OverDrive digital catalog ! For a more detailed top ten lists by format (physical v electronic), see the  TOP TITLES IN 2022 : Top 10 Borrowed Titles (Physical Items) Top 10 Most Requested Titles (Physical Items) Top 10 Borrowed e-Books (OverDrive) Top 10 Borrowed e-Audio (OverDrive)  

CW MARS continues to embrace our core values of equity, diversity and access by working towards eliminating overdue fines for patrons of all member libraries.  We recognize that overdue fines present an economic barrier to the access of library materials and services and can be a form of social inequity. At a recent governance meeting, our member libraries voted to remove overdue fines from our standard circulation policies.  This means that any new library wishing to join the consortium must not charge overdue fines on circulating items (there are a few exceptions allowed for special items like equipment, museum passes, hotspots, etc). Our current member libraries are working toward removing overdue fines for their patrons.  As of today, over 85% of our libraries are fine free, 84% of our items are fine free, and 86% of all CW MARS patrons are not being charged fines on overdue items. 

We are excited to welcome two new member libraries this fiscal year!  The Hinsdale Public Library in Hinsdale, MA joined CW MARS in July. Hinsdale is a small, rural hill town community located in Berkshire County. The current population is approximately 1900. The Middlefield Public Library in Middlefield, MA also joined CW MARS this summer.    Middlefield is a small, rural town, located in Hampshire County.  The current population is approximately 385. Over the past three years, nine small libraries have joined the CW MARS consortium.  Residents of those communities are now able to more easily access the millions of items held by our 150+ members.  Patrons can place holds via our online catalog and/or mobile app and pickup and return items at any CW MARS library.