In poor economic times, more people are renting books, music and movies from the library to save money.

Dee Coover, director of the DeKalb Public Library, said there has been a significant increase in circulation.

“From December 2007 to December 2008, there has been a 17.4 percent increase in circulation rentals,” Coover said.

This increase includes books, DVDs and CDs as well.

Coover said free movie rentals are a reason why the percentage of rentals has gone up.

“Movies are free to rent, which is a great alternative to other movie rental options,” she said.

A lot of NIU students and teachers are taking advantage of renting movies through their library, Coover said, and added that there has been an increase in the number of people coming to the library.

“From December 2006 to December 2008 there has been a 30 percent increase from our door count,” she said. The free Internet access and the environment account for this as well, she said.

“We’ve been seeing a lot of people coming in to use the Internet mostly for job applications,” she said. “And others come in to be in a warm and safe place to read, especially during winter months.”

Byron Anderson, interim associate dean of Founders Memorial Library, said book rentals usually go up half way through each semester.

“Book rentals have the tendency to remain steady,” Anderson said. “By mid semester, though, a lot of students are checking out books.”

Anderson finds their large DVD collection to be a factor in more students coming to the library.

“Over the past three years, there has been a big addition in our DVDs, which easily attracts students here,” Anderson said.

Despite libraries seeing an increase in rentals, Jody Wolf, store manager at Barnes and Noble, 2439 Sycamore Road, said sales haven’t been affected.

“Sales have been stable and it’s been business as usual,” she said.