Fast Facts: Libraries (1074)

Libraries

Question:
What information do you have on postsecondary academic libraries and public libraries?

Response:

In 2018–19, there were libraries at 93 percent of degree-granting postsecondary institutions overall, including 96 percent of public institutions, 95 percent of private nonprofit institutions, and 79 percent of private for-profit institutions.

Collections and operating expenditures of degree-granting postsecondary institution libraries: 2018–19
School level, enrollment size, and locale	Total	Public	Private nonprofit	Private for-profit
Number of libraries	3,697	1,560	1,584	553
Percentage of institutions with libraries	92.8	96.0	95.4	79.3
Number of circulation transactions (in thousands)	701,282	439,772	203,166	58,343
Physical transactions	46,071	27,842	17,745	485
Electronic transactions	655,210	411,931	185,422	57,857
Number of circulation transactions per full-time-equivalent (FTE) student	47	42	58	77
Collections (in thousands)
Total number of physical and electronic materials (books, media, and databases)	2,567,494	1,383,882	956,253	227,360
Number of books	1,795,747	955,123	727,793	112,831
Number of media (includes audiovisual materials)	770,230	428,087	227,923	114,220
Number of databases (electronic only)	1,517	672	537	309
Library operating expenditures¹
Total operating expenditures (in thousands of current dollars)	$8,387,543	$4,932,204	$3,379,783	$75,556
Operating expenditures per full-time-equivalent (FTE) student
In current dollars	568	470	958	100
Information resource expenditures per FTE student
In current dollars	216	172	386	44

¹ Excludes capital outlay. Expenditure data are reported only by degree-granting institutions with total expenditures over $100,000.
NOTE: Data in this table represent the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Degree-granting institutions grant associate's or higher degrees and participate in Title IV federal financial aid programs. Some data have been revised from previously published figures. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding.
SOURCE: National Center for Education Statistics. (2021, June). Table 701.40. Collections, staff, and operating expenditures of degree-granting postsecondary institution libraries: Selected years, 2001–02 through 2018–19 [Data table]. In Digest of education statistics. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved January 25, 2022, from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d20/tables/dt20_701.40.asp.

In 2019, there were 9,057 public libraries in the United States with a total of 687 million books and serial volumes. The annual number of visits per capita—that is, per resident of the areas served by the libraries—was 3.9, the annual number of reference transactions per capita was 0.7, and the annual number of uses of public-access internet computers per capita was 0.7.

SOURCE: National Center for Education Statistics. (2021, September). Table 701.60. Number of public libraries, number of books and serial volumes, and per capita usage of selected library services per year, by state: Fiscal years 2018 and 2019 [Data table]. In Digest of education statistics. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved March 25, 2022, from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d21/tables/dt21_701.60.asp.

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