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Governments
Public Library Survey PUBLIC LIBRARIES SURVEY
PURPOSE
To provide annual statistics on the status of public libraries in the United States. The Census Bureau collects the information for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) through the Federal-State Cooperative System (FSCS) for Public Library Data. The NCES is authorized to collect these data under the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002. Responses are voluntary.
COVERAGE
Public Libraries statistics collected by the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five outlying areas with approximately 9,100 libraries with approximately 17,000 individual outlets.
CONTENT
States report information about service measures such as users of electronic resources, Internet terminals, reference transactions, public service hours, interlibrary loans, circulation, library visits, size of collections, staffing, operating revenues and expenditures and number of service outlets.
FREQUENCY
Annually since 1988. Data collection begins in November, and continues for about 9 months.
METHODS
Data are collected electronically via the Federal-State Cooperative System (FSCS) for Public Library Data. The FSCS is administered by NCES in cooperation with the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS). At the state level and in the outlying areas, FSCS is administered by data coordinators, appointed by each state or outlying area's chief officer of the state library agency.
PRODUCTS
The NCES provides the annual E.D. tabulations and survey universe file that users can download from the Internet. Website data access tools include Public Library Peer Comparison and Library Locator for Public Libraries. For additional information, visit the Library Statistics Program web-page.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Provides the core of statistics needed for current and historical analysis of public libraries and their programs.
USES
These data provide the only current, national descriptive data on the status of over 9,100 public libraries. They are used by federal, state and local officials, professional associations, and local practitioners for planning, evaluation, and policy making. These data are also valuable to researchers and educators for developing conclusions concerning the state of public libraries.
RELATED PROGRAMS
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You are here: Economic Programs Overview
Governments
Public Libary Survey Last revised: Thursday, 27-Jul-2006 10:39:18 EDT
