E.D. TABS:

Public Libraries in the United States: FY 1994

May 1997

(NCES 97-418) Ordering information

Highlights

• 8,921 public libraries (administrative entities) were reported in the 50 states and the District of Columbia in 1994 (table 1).

About 11 percent of the public libraries serve 70 percent of the population of legally served areas in the United States (derived from tables 1A and 1B)/1. Each of these public libraries has a legal service area population of 50,000 or more (table 1B).

• 1,455 public libraries (over 16 percent) reported one or more branch library outlets, with a total of 7,025. The total number of central library outlets reported was 8,879. The total number of stationary outlets reported (central library outlets and branch library outlets) was 15,904. About 9 percent of reporting public libraries had one or more bookmobile outlets, with a total of 997 (table 2).
• About 55 percent of public libraries were part of a municipal government; nearly 12 percent were part of a county/parish; nearly 6 percent had multijurisdictional governance under an intergovernmental agreement; over 9 percent were non-profit association or agency libraries; about 4 percent were part of a school district; and about 8 percent were separate government units known as library districts. Less than 1 percent were combinations of academic/public libraries or school/public libraries. Just over 5 percent did not report or reported a form of governance not mentioned here (table 17).
• 80.4 percent of public libraries had a single direct service outlet (table 18).

Income, Expenditures, and Staffing

• Public libraries reported that approximately 78 percent of their total operating income of about $5.3 billion came from local sources, about 12 percent from the state, 1 percent from federal sources, and over 8 percent from other sources, such as gifts and donations, service fees and fines (table 10).
• Per capita operating income from local sources was under $3 for 13 percent of public libraries, $3 to $14.99 for approximately 51 percent, and $15 to $29.99 for 25 percent of public libraries/2. 10.7 percent of libraries had a per capita income from local sources of $30 or more (table 11).
• Total operating expenditures for public libraries were over $4.9 billion in 1994. Of this, about 65 percent was expended for paid staff and nearly 15 percent for the library collection (table 12). The average U.S. per capita operating expenditure was $19.93. The highest average per capita operating expenditure in the 50 states was $35.40 and the lowest was $8.45 (table 13).
• About 40 percent of public libraries reported operating expenditures of less than $50,000 in 1994; about 39 percent expended between $50,000 and $399,999; and about 22 percent exceeded $400,000 (table 14).

Staffing and Collections

• Public libraries reported a total of nearly 112,823 paid full-time equivalent (FTE) staff (table 8).

• Nationwide, public libraries reported nearly 672 million books and serial volumes in their collections or 2.7 volumes per capita. By state, the number of volumes per capita ranged from 1.7 to 4.9 (table 6).
• Nationwide, public libraries reported collections of nearly 24 million audio materials and nearly 9.3 million video materials (table 6).

Circulation and Interlibrary Loans

• Total nationwide circulation of library materials was nearly 1.6 billion or 6.4 per capita. Highest state-wide circulation per capita in the fifty states was 11.8 and lowest was 3.1 (table 4).
• Nationwide, nearly 7.9 million library materials were loaned by public libraries to other libraries (table 4).

Children's Services

• Nationwide circulation of children's materials was nearly 492 million or about 31 percent of total circulation. Attendance at children's programs was over 38 million (table 5).

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