• Introduction
• Number of Public Libraries and Their Service Outlets and Legal Basis
• Operating Income and Expenditures
• Staffing and Collections
• Services

The 41 tables in this report summarize information about public libraries in the 50 states and the District of Columbia for state fiscal year (FY) 1997.¹ 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 1997 survey is the 10th in the series. FSCS is a cooperative system through which states and the outlying areas submit individual public library data to NCES on a voluntary basis. At the state level, FSCS is administered by State Data Coordinators (SDCs) appointed by the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA). The SDC collects the requested data from public libraries and submits these data to NCES. NCES aggregates the data to provide the state and national totals presented in this report. All 50 states and the District of Columbia submitted data for FY 1997. Requests for data were sent to the following outlying areas: Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, Republic of Palau, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Only data for the Northern Mariana Islands are included in this report.²

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, type of administrative structure, and summary information about the number and type of public library service outlets. Data were imputed for nonresponding libraries.

There were 8,967 public libraries (administrative entities) in the 50 states and the District of Columbia in FY 1997. Eleven percent of the public libraries served 71 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.

Eighty percent of public libraries had one 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,³ and bookmobile outlets. A total of 1,487 public libraries (17 percent) had one or more branch library outlets, with a total of 7,147 branches. The total number of central library outlets was 8,943. Thus, the total number of stationary outlets (central library outlets and branch library outlets) was 16,090. Nine percent of public libraries had one or more bookmobile outlets, with a total of 947 bookmobiles.

Fifty-four percent of public libraries were part of a municipal government, 12 percent were part of a county or parish, and 6 percent had multijurisdictional legal basis under an intergovernmental agreement. Eleven percent were nonprofit association or agency libraries, 3 percent were part of a school district, and 8 percent were separate government units known as library districts. One percent were combinations of academic/public libraries or school/public libraries. Six percent reported their legal basis as "other."

Seventy-three percent of public libraries were members of a system, federation, or cooperative service, while 24 percent were not. Four percent served as the headquarters of a system, federation, or cooperative service.

In FY 1997, 78 percent of public libraries' total operating income of about $6.3 billion came from local sources, 12 percent from the state, 1 percent from federal sources, and 9 percent from other sources, such as gifts and donations, service fees, and fines.

Nationwide, total per capita ⁴ operating income for public libraries was $24.48. Of that, $19.00 was from local sources, $2.97 from state sources, $.22 from federal sources, and $2.28 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 45 percent of libraries, $15.00 to $29.99 for 29 percent, and $30.00 or more for 15 percent.

Total operating expenditures for public libraries were $5.9 billion in FY 1997. Of this, 64 percent was expended for paid staff and 15 percent for the library collection.

Thirty-six percent of public libraries had operating expenditures of less than $50,000, 39 percent expended between $50,000 and $399,999, and 25 percent expended $400,000 or more. The average U.S. per capita operating expenditure for public libraries was $22.88. The highest average per capita operating expenditure in the 50 states and the District of Columbia was $40.19 and the lowest was $9.85.

Expenditures for materials in electronic format ⁵ were 1 percent of total operating expenditures for public libraries. Expenditures for electronic access ⁶ were 3 percent of total operating expenditures.

Public libraries had a total of 120,750 paid full-time-equivalent (FTE) staff, or 11.8 per 25,000 population in FY 1997. Of these, 23 percent, or 2.7 per 25,000 population, were librarians with the ALA-MLS, ⁷ 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 723 million books and serial volumes in their collections, or 2.8 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 27 million audio materials and 15 million video materials. Nationwide, public libraries provided 3.9 materials in electronic format (e.g., CD-ROMs, magnetic tapes, and magnetic disks) per 1,000 population.

Nationwide, 79 percent of public libraries provided access to the Internet and 66 percent provided access to electronic services. ⁸

In FY 1997, total nationwide circulation of public library materials was 1.7 billion, or 6.6 per capita. The highest statewide circulation per capita in the 50 states and the District of Columbia was 12.6 and the lowest was 2.7.

Nationwide,

• 11.7 million library materials were loaned by public libraries to other libraries;
• reference transactions in public libraries totaled 287 million, or 1.1 per capita; and
• library visits in public libraries totaled 1.1 billion, or 4.1 per capita.

Nationwide, circulation of children's materials was 596 million, or 35 percent of total circulation. Attendance at children's programs was 43 million.