Background: Tomorrow, 17 September 2025, the Board of Newmarket Public Library meets. Since Tracy Munusami was appointed as Chief Executive of Newmarket Public Library over four years ago we have seen a steady deterioration in the quantity and quality of data used to measure Library performance. 

The Chief Executive says it is all about cleaning up the database but there is more to it than that.

In the Library’s “Report to the Community 2023” and “Report to the Community 2024” there are no year-end membership figures. Instead, we are given annual percentage increases in membership and other Library services which distort the true picture.

The 2024 Report stated membership had surged but, in reality, it dropped by 7.9%.

10 and 11 April 2025

I posted a blog about the collapse in membership on 10 April 2025. The following day, 11 April 2025, Ms Munusami contacted the Ontario civil servants responsible for maintaining the Province’s Annual Survey of Public Libraries to change the number she had filed previously.

She updated the 24,136 Active Library Cardholders for 2023 (see graphic above) to a new lower one (18,992) which allowed the Library to assert there had indeed been an increase in membership.

Under Ms Munusami’s leadership, the full range of Library usage statistics has not been collected since 2023 but we do have figures for 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

The Library no longer reports publicly on the number of members who renew their membership.

Why is this happening? 

The previous Chief Executive, Todd Kyle, spent years trying to convince the Town the Library was too small and was no longer fit for purpose. Some councillors, like Regional Councillor Tom Vegh, pushed for a new library but when, in exasperation, Kyle moved on to a new job in Brampton, all talk of a new library faded. No-one on the Town council or, astonishingly, on the library board saw any merit in a new library. The focus was all on getting more out of the existing resources. And the way to measure success was in increased membership. This became the key metric.

What is missing and what do we need?

The library should give us in its annual “Report to the Community” the year-end membership number that is reported to the Province. 

It should separate out new (or first time) members and those existing members who are simply renewing their memberships.

The library should be crystal clear who is an “active cardholder”. Is this someone who actually uses the Library at least once in the two-year membership period? Or does it include someone who has filled in a membership form at a school or outreach event and doesn’t follow through by using what the library has to offer? 

Signing up people through outreach could produce a new cohort of sleeping members, people who are Library members in name only. In 2023 there were 595 new members signed up through outreach work. In 2024 the number rose to 1,543.

Who are the members or “Active Cardholders”?

Ms Munusami initially told the Province there were 24,136 members (or “active Library cardholders”) in December 2023. It was subsequently revised to 17,893. She now says:

“The correct number is - 18,992 (Using our new definition)”

On 4 July 2025 she told me:

“...I acknowledge that we have reported some numbers in error during the transition to the new definition. We are working to correct this going forward.” 

The Statistics Dashboard report that went to the Board on 21 May 2025 was also flawed:

“Staff found an error in the formulas. We will correct it and report the error to the board next quarter.” 

Why on earth didn’t the Chief Executive - on $170,000+ a year - spot the error before it got to the Library Board? 

It was screaming out as all wrong.

Refused

I have asked Ms Munusami to let me have the Excel spreadsheets and formulas she used to generate the statistics and to show me where the errors crept in.

But she refuses point blank to let me have sight of them.

Why?

What’s the problem with sharing the data and the methodology?

Do I have to go to the Information and Privacy Commission to wring this information out of her?

$3,781,775

Newmarket Public Library is not a private company where the owners call the shots.

The Town gave $3,781,775 to our Library last year to support its operating budget.

Despite this, there appears to be no audit on how the Library reports on the key fundamentals of membership and usage.

Are we supposed to take it all on trust?

Why should we?

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Click "read more" below for email exchange

 

 

  

4 July 2025

Dear Mr. Prentice,  

Thank you for your questions, and I’m happy to provide you with the additional information you have requested. As you are aware, we are working with a new process for capturing ‘Active Library Cardholders. ’ The change is for better accuracy on our users so that we can make better decisions to meet the community’s needs. The change still aligns with the provincial definition of an “Active Library Cardholder.”  With the introduction of the new definition, going forward, we will report membership numbers based on a process that will consistently remove expired cards. I acknowledge that we have reported some numbers in error during the transition to the new definition. We are working to correct this going forward. 

We have identified two errors in the information provided for the article:  (Ie in Newmarket Today)

• The first error was with the count of Active Library Card Holders as of December 31, 2023. The correct number is - 18,992 (Using our new definition) 

• The second error was in the report to the Board on May 21, 2025. Staff found an error in the formulas. We will correct it and report the error to the board next quarter. 

Information to answer your questions and some background: 

• Newmarket Library cards expire every two years. This means a user will need to renew their card to access library services. 

• Definition of Active Cardholders: We now define an active cardholder as someone who still has access to the library collection. If your card expires, you no longer have access to the library collection and are no longer an active cardholder until you return to renew it.   

o   The old way of defining an active cardholder was to take the existing active cardholder and add the new cards issued in a year, not considering that expired cards no longer have access. 

o   The Newmarket Library’s ‘new users’ data does not include users who simply renewed their card. However, it may include people who were users a few years ago, were inactive for a period (e.g. didn’t renew right away) and came back for a card. 

• 5,357 is the number of new memberships for 2023, and new memberships for 2024 was 9,476. 

• How is the database cleaned-up: A report is run to capture all the expired cards, then we delete most expired accounts. There is one exception – for auditing purposes we are required to keep accounts in our system where money is owed; this is a small amount.  

Here’s a chart to outline the data 

Year	Existing Active Cards	New Cards Issued in year	Total number of active cards at year end
2023	Not collected/reported	5,357	18,992
2024	18,992	9,476	22,234

Some of these changes in reporting are based on direction from the library board. Our focus for the last 3 years has been to show people how the library has evolved, and new members gave us an indicator that our outreach efforts were reaching people outside of the walls of the library. Now we want to build on that by making sure customers have a great experience using library services so that they return, so we can continue to support life-long learning and building community. Retention is a focus this year.

I hope this information helps.

___________________________________________________

By email to the Library Chief Executive and Library Board: 15 September 2025

Dear Ms Munusami

We have been in correspondence for several months about the errors in the library’s membership data. 

In your email of 28 July 2025 you told me you were confident the revised report going to the Library Board on 17 September 2025 would address my concerns about the data in the Statistics Dashboard that went to the Board in June. The report - with its error - was adopted by the Board as presented. (Note: the report went to the Board in May not June)

Having now read the report I have some further questions.

The revised report shows 9,476 as the "New Membership” figure for 2024. 

This is the figure which appears in the 2024 Report to the Community as the number of new library members that year.

Does this figure represent only new (that is first time) members of the library or does this figure include existing members who are renewing? If it is the latter, can you let me have the split in the numbers for both categories?

I am asking for this clarification as you told me in your earlier email of 4 July 2025:

The Newmarket Library’s ‘new users’ data does not include users who simply renewed their card. However, it may include people who were users a few years ago, were inactive for a period (e.g. didn’t renew right away) and came back for a card.”  (My underlining)

In that 4 July 2025 email you included this table to “outline the data”.

Year	Existing Active Cards	New Cards Issued in year	Total number of active cards at year end
2023	Not collected/reported	5,357	18,992
2024	18,992	9,476	22,234

The table shows that the existing active cards on 1 January 2024 (18,992) plus the new cards issued during the year (9,476) total 28,468. If we subtract the number of active cards at the year-end (22,234) we are left with 6,234. 

I am unclear if this number represents a combination of renewals and lapsed (or non-renewed) memberships.

If, as you say, new cards do not include users who simply renewed their card, how many membership renewals were there in 2024?

Can I also ask you to clarify the definition of “active Library user”?

You told the Town’s Committee of the Whole in April 2025:

“The definition of an “active library user” is someone who's used the library in the last 24 months…”

And in your email to me of 4 July 2025 you told me:

“We now define an active cardholder as someone who still has access to the library collection. If your card expires, you no longer have access to the library collection and are no longer an active cardholder until you return to renew it…"   

Does this new definition mean the cardholder is no longer required to use the library at least once within the two-year membership term to be categorised as an “active cardholder”?

I am grateful for any help you can give which helps me better understand how the library calculates its performance statistics and how they are presented to the Board and to the wider public.

You may wish to address these concerns at the Board meeting on Wednesday.

Gordon Prentice