US Library Data Sources and Analysis

Robert E. Molyneux

Introduction

The purpose of this page is to provide links to a variety of sources of data on US libraries. It began as a means to locate difficult-to-find information on the Web site of the US National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) but has expanded beyond that as work on NCES--and other--library data has progressed. The section with these links to NCES's site is Section 1 immediately below. Section 2 includes "Useful Links" to other sources information or data on libraries, including some with analysis of libraries as seen through the data we have on them. Following this group of links is growing Section 3, "Analysis", devoted primarily to analysis of public libraries using the NCES data. Section 4, "Data", has datasets made up of longitudinal data that came from manipulating the various separately published annual compilations from NCES. Section 5 has "Plots and Maps" and at this time are experimental. They were done as tests and the programs that were written to produce them will eventually be used in the analysis of library data.

1. US National Center for Education Statistics Links

The links in this section are to the Web site at the US National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which collects and publishes statistics on various types of libraries.

1.1. NCES Library Data Publications

The NCES site arranges its material by publication number rather than by library type while the pages linked to here are by type of library, type of publication, and these are in chronological order.

• Public Library Survey publications
• State Library Agencies publications
• Academic Library Statistics
• School Library Media Centers
• "Other" Libraries
• Office/Department of Education Library Publications in paper--not updated recently. The idea of a comprehensive bibliography of all the publications of ED related to libraries turns out to be a major project. This list is a small sample that should give an idea of the scope of such a bibliography.

1.2. NCES Sites for Searching

• NCES Public Library Peer Comparison Tool, "Compare Public Libraries"
• Search for Public Libraries
• Public Library Locator
• NCES Academic Library Peer Comparison Tool, "Compare Academic Libraries"
• Search for schools, colleges and libraries (Global Locator)

1.3. Other NCES Links

• NCES publications pages--links to information on the availability of publications
• Library Statistics Program
• NCES "Library Statistics Program General Links"

2. Useful Links

These are links to sites with data on libraries and other information agencies.

• New measures. Efforts to measure libraries in non-traditional ways. Includes impact studies.
• US Public Library Geographic Database (PLGDB), that is, Geolib
  • A growing project that will combine spatial information on libraries and the communities they serve.
• Pages from the Statistical Abstract of the United States with data on Information and Communications, including libraries. There is a link to the 2003 data on the Census site with 2002 on the NCLIS site.
• ALA Office for Research and Statistics. See Statistics About Libraries. Of course, there is lots of other good stuff there, too.
• Library Research Service. Home of Fast Facts.
  • Library Research Service links to state library statistics pages.
• Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Statistics and Measurement Program
• Bureau of the Census, Public Libraries Survey
• OCLC
  • Libraries: How They Stack Up
  • OCLC Top 1000
• Hennen's American Public Library Ratings
• Davies Project at Princeton University. "Research into the History of University Libraries in the United States and the History of their Collections." Includes a transcription of Haynes McMullen's notes.

3. Analysis

This section includes links to analysis done at NCLIS primarily on the NCES data although data from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is now included.

• State Rank Order Tables
  • These come from the ED Tabs reports published by NCES. In addition, there is a bit of analysis of the ranks. Preliminary tank order tables for FY2003 are at the Normative Data Project site, with simple trend analysis following on that page.
• Public Libraries in the United States, a Statistical Portrait
• Public Library Trends, FY1990-FY2002. These are for about 8,300 public libraries, by size of library.
• Selected trend analysis based on the State Summary data from FY1992-FY2003 can be found at the Normative Data Project site. This is an attempt to investigate national trends affecting public libraries in the US.
• Trends at Twelve Association of Research Libraries Members, 1908-2006

4. Data

The following links are devoted to various sets of public library data. At this time, all these data originate with NCES data collection efforts.

• I am compiling a longitudinal series from the Academic Library Statistics, a biennial series published by NCES. The work is progressing and various aspects of these datasets and this work is dicussed.
• One of the two datasets (PLDF3) can be used to analyze trends.
• State Summary/State Characteristics longitudinal data file (PUSUM)--state summary data about public libraries from FY1992-FY2004.
  • Summary data created by NCES using imputation and restricted data. This dataset cannot be replicated but is currently the best estimate we have of aggregated public library variables by state.
• State Library Agencies longitudinal data file (StLA). Data from the 50 state libraries, plus DC, from FY1994-FY2002. This file has not yet been updated to reflect NCES publication of 2003 or 2004 raw data.

5. Plots and Maps

These were created as examples to demonstrate several types of charts that can be used to present library data in a different form. The maps, particularly, need work.

• Introduction
• Single variables
• Expenditures
• Maps

September 18, 2007