• Introduction
• Number of Public Libraries, Population of Legal Service Area, and Service Outlets
• Legal Basis and Interlibrary Relationships
• Operating Income and Expenditures
• Staff and Collections
• Library Services
• References

The tables in this report summarize information about public libraries in the 50 states and the District of Columbia for state fiscal year (FY) 1998.¹  (Data from two outlying areas, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, are also included in the tables,²  but not in the table totals.) The data were collected through the Public Libraries Survey (PLS), conducted annually by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) through the Federal-State Cooperative System (FSCS) for Public Library Data. The FY 98 survey is the 11th in the series.

This report includes information about service measures such as access to the Internet and other electronic services, reference transactions, public service hours, interlibrary loans, circulation, library visits, children's program attendance, and circulation of children's materials. It also includes information about size of collection, staffing, operating income and expenditures, type of legal basis, and type of administrative structure, as well as summary information about the number and type of public library service outlets.³ 

The following highlights are for libraries in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

There were 8,964 public libraries (administrative entities) in the 50 states and the District of Columbia in FY 98. Eleven percent of the public libraries served 72 percent of the population of legally served areas in the United States; each of these public libraries had a legal service area population of 50,000 or more. Of the total population of the states and the District of Columbia, 97 percent⁴  had access to public library services, and 3 percent did not.

Eighty percent of public libraries had a single direct service outlet (an outlet that provides service directly to the public). Twenty percent had more than one direct service outlet. This report includes information about three types of direct public library service outlets: branch library outlets, central library outlets, and bookmobile outlets. A total of 1,513 public libraries (17 percent) had one or more branch library outlets, with a total of 7,293 branches. The total number of central library outlets was 8,887. The total number of stationary outlets (central library outlets and branch library outlets) was 16,180. Nine percent of public libraries had one or more bookmobile outlets, with a total of 933 bookmobiles.

In FY 98, 53 percent of public libraries were part of a municipal government, 12 percent were part of a county/parish, 1 percent were part of a city/county, 6 percent had multijurisdictional legal basis under an intergovernmental agreement, 11 percent were nonprofit association or agency libraries, 3 percent were part of a school district, and 8 per-cent were separate government units known as library districts. Seven percent reported their legal basis as "other."

Seventy-three percent of public libraries were members of a system, federation, or cooperative service, while 23 percent were not. Four percent served as the headquarters of a system, federation, or cooperative service.

In FY 98, 78 percent of public libraries' total operating income of about $6.7 billion came from local sources, 13 percent from state sources, 1 percent from federal sources, and 9 percent from other sources, such as gifts and donations, service fees, and fines.

Nationwide, total per capita⁵ operating income for public libraries was $26.02. Of that, $20.18 was from local sources, $3.28 from state sources, $.21 from federal sources, and $2.35 from other sources. Per capita operating income from local sources was under $3.00 for 11 percent of public libraries, $3.00 to $14.99 for 43 percent of libraries, $15.00 to $29.99 for 30 percent of libraries, and $30.00 or more for 17 percent of libraries.

Total operating expenditures for public libraries were $6.2 billion. Of this, 64 percent was expended for paid staff and 15 percent for the library collection. Thirty-five percent of public libraries had operating expenditures of less than $50,000, 39 percent expended from $50,000 to $399,999, and 25 percent expended $400,000 or more.

Expenditures for materials in electronic format were 1 per-cent of total operating expenditures for public libraries. Expenditures for electronic access were 3 percent of total operating expenditures.

The average U.S. per capita operating expenditure for public libraries was $23.92. The highest average per capita operating expenditure in the 50 states and the District of Columbia was $42.31 and the lowest was $10.43.

Public libraries had a total of 123,443 paid full-time-equivalent (FTE) staff in FY 98, or 11.9 paid FTE staff per 25,000 population. Of these, 23 percent, or 2.7 per 25,000 population, were librarians with the ALA-MLS,⁶  and 10 percent were librarians by title but did not have the ALA-MLS. Sixty-seven percent of the staff were in other positions.

Nationwide, public libraries had 739 million books and serial volumes in their collections, or 2.9 volumes per capita. By state, the number of volumes per capita ranged from 1.6 to 5.4. In addition to printed materials, public libraries nationwide had collections of 28 million audio materials and 17 million video materials. Nationwide, public libraries provided 4.4 materials in electronic format (e.g., CD-ROMs, magnetic tapes, and magnetic disks) per 1,000 population.

Nationwide, 74 percent of public libraries provided access to electronic services,⁷  and 88 percent of public libraries had access to the Internet (a 9-percentage-point increase since FY 97).⁸  Almost 72 percent of all public libraries made the Internet available to patrons directly or through a staff intermediary, almost 9 percent of public libraries made the Internet available to patrons through a staff intermediary only, and almost 8 percent of public libraries made the Internet available only to library staff. Ninety-three percent⁹ of the unduplicated population of legal service areas had access to the Internet through their local public library.

Total nationwide circulation of public library materials was 1.7 billion, or 6.6 materials circulated per capita. The highest circulation per capita in the 50 states and the District of Columbia was 12.5 and the lowest was 2.7.

Nationwide,

• 13.5 million library materials were loaned by public libraries to other libraries (an increase of 15.0 percent since FY 97);¹⁰ 
• reference transactions in public libraries totaled 292 million, or 1.1 reference transactions per capita; and
• library visits in public libraries totaled 1.1 billion, or 4.2 library visits per capita.

Nationwide, circulation of children's materials was 612 million, or 36 percent of total circulation. Attendance at children's programs was 46 million.