Quick! Name a single Meadville institution that saved area residents $5.1 million in out-of-pocket expenses during the 12-month period that ended July 1.

Here’s a hint: If patrons at Meadville Public Library had invested an average retail price of $27.47 per volume to purchase 55,890 adult hardback fiction books instead of simply heading to the library’s checkout desk between June 30, 2007, and July 1, 2008, they would have spent more than $1.5 million, according to figures compiled by Audrey Porter, the library’s development coordinator.

The numbers weren’t transposed. There’s more.

At an average retail price of $26.90, it would have cost area residents $667,604 to purchase each of the adult non-fiction books the library circulated. Then there’s another $157,172 for fiction paperbacks. Add to that $752,132 for children’s picture books and another $562,287 for children’s fiction and non-fiction books and you’re starting to talk some serious spending. And that’s just for the ink-on-paper collection. Add in all the other materials circulated and the total jumps to $5.1 million.

“During the 12 months (beginning June 30, 2007), more than 232,00 items were circulated,” Executive Director John Brice recently wrote in “Snippets from the Shelves,” the library’s newsletter. “This represents more than six books a year to every man, woman and child in our service area.”

Operating under various names and funded by various means, Meadville has had a library since 1812. Exactly 41 years ago, however, the library asked its patrons to donate money to specifically help purchase books for the first time. “Basically, we ask patrons to help contribute to the public library to purchase new books,” Brice explained during a recent interview. “All the funds are used for that.”

Now finishing its second week, Meadville Public Library’s 41st Annual Patrons Drive is already off to a great start, according to Brice. In fact, with 255 individuals already contributing $16,577, the organization is more than half-way to its $30,000 goal.

“We’re right on target where we thought we would be,” said Brice, describing himself as “cautiously optimistic” about the end result of the drive. “This year may be more difficult, but we’re pleasantly pleased with how things are working out.”

And that, according to Brice, is a very good thing. Experience has shown that as economic conditions tighten up, libraries get busier. Much busier.

“It has been said, ‘Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries,’ ” board President Robert B. Snyder noted in a letter written for the current fund drive.

Bringing home the need for support, “The Meadville Public Library has never been busier,” Snyder continued. “Every day more than 500 people save money by visiting the library and taking advantage of free access to our services and collection of books, magazines, DVDs, recorded books, music CDs and toys.” This, he added, represents an increase in the number of people using the library since the beginning of the year by nearly 20 percent.

“It’s definitely getting busier,” agreed Porter, who has been a full-time library employee for 35 years.

By borrowing just 10 items per month instead of purchasing, a family can save approximately $2,500 per year, according to Porter’s study. And that doesn’t count using on-site computers, accessing the building’s wireless network or participating in activities including weekly preschool story hours and summer reading clubs.

As Brice sees it, the best way to help fellow citizens weather any upcoming economic storms is to help the public library make its materials even more available to the public.