Q. If all of the checked-out books were returned to the library, would they fit? If not, how much additional shelf space would be needed?
A. It is common for public libraries to plan for between one-half and one-third of their collections to be checked out at any given time, and the Ann Arbor District Library is usually right in that range. At the end of June, 175,830 of 659,397 items were checked out, about 27 percent.
The library doesn’t have shelf space for the entire collection. If all items were returned at once, it would have to do some hasty rearranging.
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