The checkouts have been tallied and the numbers are in: the most popular items at the Haines Borough Public Library this year included the movies “Greyhound” and “Oppenheimer” at 32 checkouts apiece and the kids’ book “Construction Site Friends,” borrowed 18 times.

Assistant library director Matthew Jillson provided the stats on 2024 checkouts in December, offering a glimpse at what Haines read and watched this year. In general, fiction was the most sought-after reading material.

Kristin Hannah’s fictional novel “The Women” was the library’s most popular this year, checked out 17 times. The most popular mystery of 2024 was Jonathan Kellerman’s “The Ghost Orchid,” which had 11 checkouts. “The Ministry of Time” by Kaliane Bradley was the most desired science-fiction novel, with five checkouts.

The top nonfiction title was “10-minute Strength Training Exercises for Seniors: Exercises and Routines to Build Muscle, Balance, and Stamina,” with 11 checkouts, giving it a slight edge over a plant-based cookbook that had 10 checkouts through October. 

The most popular young adult fiction was “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” by Suzanne Collins, which was checked out seven times and is part of the Hunger Games series. Jillson noted that four of the top five YA books this year were from that series.

In the Alaska section, there was a three-way tie among books for the top spot: “Old Yukon: Tales, Trails and Trials” by James Wickersham, “Ecological Atlas of Southeast Alaska” edited by Melanie A. Smith and “Best of the Best from Alaska Cookbook: Selected Recipes from Alaska’s Favorite Cookbooks” edited by Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley; each had four checkouts apiece. Likewise, Heather Lende’s “If You Lived Here I’d Know Your Name: News from Small Town Alaska” was the most-sought local read, also with four checkouts.

In total, through Dec. 17, visitors to the Haines Borough Public Library recorded: 

  • 15,292 book checkouts, including 8,129 kids’ books. 
  • 9,695 DVD checkouts, 100 checkouts for books on CD and 72 music CD checkouts. 
  • 157 magazine checkouts.

Jillson also provided the stats on the most checked-out items of all time, not just the past year. For fiction, “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens took the top slot with 120 checkouts, while “The Big Book of Kombucha: Brewing, Flavoring and Enjoying the Health Benefits of Fermented Tea” by Hannah Crum and Alex LaGory was the top nonfiction of all time, with 77 checkouts. The kids book with the most checkouts was “Sleepy Kittens” by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, with 77 checkouts. For electronic media, “Star Trek, the Next Generation” was checked out 55 times and Maria Callas’ “La Divina” was borrowed 12 times, the most for a music CD.

As for the people with the most checkouts? The library’s “super patrons” had more than 100 checkouts.

Claudellen “Scooter” Edge was the library’s top super patron for the year, with 270 checkouts – all of which, she said, were DVDs. She couldn’t name a favorite, although she thought she had watched the majority of the library’s collection.

“[Two hundred and seventy] of them, and you’re going to make me pick one,” she said.

Edge visits the library three to four times per month, and said she wasn’t a frequent library visitor before moving to Haines. Retirement, and living within walking distance when she first moved to town, helped her become a regular here.

“I enjoy going to the library. It’s very peaceful, and great staff,” she said, adding that the library Christmas tree is a highlight each winter.

Paul Boulter is the library’s other super patron. He had 103 checkouts in 2024, including 39 books – the most of any library visitor this year.

“I read across the spectrum. What I’ve been doing is going back and filling in gaps with some of my favorite crime fiction authors,” he said, listing Craig Johnson, Michael Connelly, Lee Child and Joe Pike as some of those favorites. He added that he also reads some nonfiction, and anything else that piques his interest when he visits the library.

“They do such a great job in the Haines library in terms of organizing things and having the new (books) right out at the front so it grabs your eye as you’re walking by,” Boulter said.

Boulter’s first visit to the Haines library was on his first visit to town, in December 2001, but he said he’s a longtime library enthusiast who considers libraries the “zenith of human society.” As a child growing up in the Chicago suburbs, he often went to the library with a friend whose mother was a librarian and thought it was a “place of reverence.”

“I’m a huge fan of free public libraries,” he said. “I think it’s one of the best aspects of human society, human civilization, that concept of a free library where one can go and read for pleasure or to inform ones self. It’s a wonderful thing.”