If a new program takes shape as promised, Ohio residents soon will be able to stop into their local library and pick up their books as well as a free rapid COVID-19 test kit they can use at home.
The program was unveiled during an Ohio Department of Health webinar Wednesday to provide details to Ohio s 251 public library systems. This is literally a brand-new program, said Michelle Francis, executive director of the Ohio Library Council. The governor s testing team called us to say they had purchased about 2 million of the Abbott rapid at-home test kits and were making them available to health departments and sheriff s offices.
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Five central Ohio library systems among those recognized nationally
A total of 31 of Ohio s 251 library systems received a star rating in the Index of Public Library Service, which measures circulation, visits and more.
Ohioans love their libraries, at least according to one recently published national analysis of circulation and visits.
A total of 31 of Ohio s 251 library systems including five from central Ohio received a star rating in the Index of Public Library Service, the 13th annual such report released by the Library Journal, an American trade publication for librarians founded in 1876.
Of the 5,608 U.S. libraries qualified to be rated on the index, just 262 received a star rating. Ohio s 31 star-rated library systems ranks second to New York, which tallied 34. Iowa had the third-most star-rated libraries with 18.