Sometimes you can get lost in the numbers and I encourage you to do so.

Appended is a data set on usage of public library branches in Philadelphia. They compare total circulation by branch in 2004 to the same numbers in 2008. Total circulation means the number of items people checked out – books, CD’s, VHS tapes, etc.

The libraries in red are the ones slated to be shut down by the Nutter administration as part of its effort to close a gap in the city budget.

Overall, the trend in usage at the libraries is up – by any measure. This is especially true of computer usage. A lot of folks in Philadelphia either don’t have computers or don’t have internet access. They go to the nearest library for that – and there often is a line to use the computers in the branches.

I don’t have data on computer usage by branch, but overall it is rising rapidly. In 2004, for instance, there were 67.7 million website hits on library computers. By 2007, the number of hits had risen to 103.7 million, according to data from the city’s budget office.

Libraries get a lot of use generally. In a public opinion survey of Philadelphia residents taken in 2007, 50 percent said they visited a library at least once a month. And 83% said they were satisfied with library services.

Between 2004 and 2008, circulation in the branches increased by 3 percent. If I was the city bureaucrat charged with deciding what libraries should close or remain open, the first thing I would look at is usage. But that measure, here is the list of libraries with a biggest drop in circulation:

Notice that only two of the libraries due to be closed are on the list – Durham and Fumo family.

The other nine branches had increases in usage – most of them above the citywide average of 3%.

One of them – the Fishtown Community Branch had an 87% increase. That branch is tiny – only 3,025-square feet, but usually is packed with users. For the record, here is a list of the library branches with the biggest increases in circulation:

Note that three of the libraries due to be closed had among the largest increases in circulation in the city – Fishtown, Kingsessing and the David Cohen branch in Ogontz.

Like I said, you can get lost in numbers. But, here is the larger point. By almost any measure, people in Philadelphia make heavy use of public libraries. So why close any of them?

The savings are minimal – about $8 million out of a $4 billion budget – and the pain to these neighborhoods will be great.

All the Nutterite verbiage about having the courage to make hard decisions can apply equally to foolish decisions. It’s not about courage. It’s about common sense.

It seems to me that if you have city services that are heavily used and highly valued by city residents shouldn’t they be the last to be cut, not the first?

To mention just one area: the city will be paying $385 million for health coverage for its employees. If you could reduce that figure by 10% you would save enough to run the entire library system – with closing any branch. (Health benefit costs per city employee is 30% higher than the average for state employees, as Gov. Rendell pointed out the other day.)

By the way, the Nutter administration has said it did not use usage figures to determine which libraries lived and which died. It’s principal criteria was proximity – it focused on branches that were under 2 miles from another.

If is focused on actual use of the libraries, it wouldn’t be able to justify the closures.

But, the weirdest moment in this debate came when the administration released data showing that Philadelphia had the highest per capita number of public libraries in the nation. As if that was something we should be ashamed of.