• Introduction
• History of the Public Libraries Survey and Cooperative Data Collection Today
• Findings
• References

Survey purpose and data items included in the report

The Public Libraries Survey (PLS) provides a national census of public libraries and their public service outlets. These data are useful to federal, state, and local policymakers; library and public policy researchers; and the public, journalists, and others.

This report provides summary information about public libraries in the 50 states and the District of Columbia for state fiscal year (FY) 2002. It covers service measures such as access to the Internet, number of users of electronic resources, other electronic services, number of internet terminals used by staff only, number of internet terminals used by the general public, 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 geographic service area, type of legal basis, type of administrative structure, and number and type of public library service outlets. This report is based on the final data file.

The PLS is a universe survey. A total of 8,969 of the 9,141 public libraries responded to the FY 2002 survey (8,968 public libraries in the 50 states and the District of Columbia and 1 public library in the outlying areas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands), for a unit response rate of 98.1 percent. The FY 2002 survey is the 15th in the series.¹ The data were submitted using customized personal computer survey software furnished by NCES.

Key library terminology

• Public library. A public library is an entity that is established under state enabling laws or regulations to serve a community, district, or region, and that provides at least the following: (1) an organized collection of printed or other library materials, or a combination thereof; (2) paid staff; (3) an established schedule in which services of the staff are available to the public; (4) the facilities necessary to support such a collection, staff, and schedule; and (5) that is supported in whole or in part with public funds. (Note: In the report, the term public library means an administrative entity.)
• Administrative entity. An administrative entity is the agency that is legally established under local or state law to provide public library service to the population of a local jurisdiction. The administrative entity may have a single public library service outlet, or it may have more than one public library service outlet.
• Public library service outlet. Public libraries can have one or more outlets that provide direct service to the public. The three types of public library service outlets included in this report are central library outlets, branch library outlets, and bookmobile outlets. Information on a fourth type of outlet, books-by-mail-only outlets, was collected but omitted from the report.

There are 60 tables in the full report, displaying data for the nation as a whole and for each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and one outlying area (the U.S. Virgin Islands, whose data are not included in the table totals).

Caveats for using the data

The data include imputations, at the unit and item levels, for nonresponding libraries. Comparisons to data prior to FY 1992 should be made with caution, as earlier data do not include imputations for nonresponse, and the percentage of libraries responding to a given item varied widely among states.

State data comparisons should be made with caution because of differences in state fiscal year reporting periods and adherence to survey definitions.² The District of Columbia, while not a state, is included in this report. Special care should be used in comparing the District's data to state data since it is an urban area, not a state. Caution should also be used in making comparisons with the state of Hawaii, as Hawaii reports only one public library for the entire state.

History of the Public Libraries Survey

In 1985, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the American Library Association (ALA) conducted a pilot project in 15 states to assess the feasibility of a federal-state cooperative program for the collection of public library data. The project was jointly funded by NCES and the U.S. Department of Education's former Library Programs office. In 1987, the project's final report recommended the development of a nationwide data collection system. The Hawkins-Stafford Elementary and Secondary School Improvement Amendments of 1988 (P.L. 100-297) charged NCES with developing a voluntary Federal-State Cooperative System (FSCS) for the annual collection of public library data.³ To carry out this mandate, a task force was formed by NCES and the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS), and the FSCS was established in 1988.

The first E.D. TAB in this series, Public Libraries in 50 States and the District of Columbia: 1989, which included data from 8,699 public libraries in 50 states and the District of Columbia, was released by NCES in 1991 (Podolsky 1991). A data file and survey report have been released annually since then. The states have always submitted their data electronically, via customized personal computer survey software furnished by NCES.

Cooperative data collection today

The 1988 NCES-NCLIS task force evolved into the FSCS Steering Committee as we know it today. This committee is integral to the design and conduct of the survey. Its membership includes State Data Coordinators (SDCs) and representatives of the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA), NCLIS, ALA, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the U.S. Census Bureau (the data collection agent), and NCES.

Data are collected through the PLS, conducted annually by NCES through the FSCS for Public Library Data. FSCS is a cooperative system through which states and the outlying areas submit data for each of 9,000 public libraries to NCES on a voluntary basis. At the state level, FSCS is administered by SDCs appointed by the 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.

Number of public libraries and population of legal service area

• There were 9,137⁴ public libraries (administrative entities) in the 50 states and the District of Columbia in FY 2002.
• Public libraries served 98 percent⁵ of the total population of the states and the District of Columbia, either in legally established geographic service areas or in areas under contract.
• Eleven percent of the public libraries served 72 per-cent 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.

• In FY 2002, 81 percent of public libraries had one direct-service outlet (an outlet that provides service directly to the public). Twenty percent had more than one direct-service outlet. Types of direct-service outlets include central library outlets, branch library outlets, and bookmobile outlets.
• A total of 1,535 public libraries (17 percent) had one or more branch library outlets, with a total of 7,500 branch outlets. The total number of central library outlets was 8,986. The total number of stationary outlets (central library outlets and branch library outlets) was 16,486. Eight percent of public libraries had one or more bookmobile outlets, with a total of 873 bookmobiles.

• In FY 2002, 54 percent of public libraries were part of a municipal government, 10 percent were part of a county/parish, 15 percent were nonprofit association libraries or agency libraries, 11 percent were separate government units known as library districts, 4 percent had multijurisdictional legal basis under an intergovernmental agreement, 3 percent were part of a school district, 1 percent were part of a city/county, and 1 percent reported their legal basis as "other."
• Seventy-six percent of public libraries were members of a system, federation, or cooperative service, while 23 percent were not. One percent served as the headquarters of a system, federation, or cooperative service.⁶

Children's services

• Nationwide, circulation of children's materials was 682.9 million, or 36 percent of total circulation, in FY 2002. Attendance at children's programs was 52.1 million.

• Nationwide, 93 percent of public libraries provided access to electronic services.⁷
• Nationwide, uses of electronic resources per year totaled 292.7 million, or 1.1 uses of electronic resources per capita.⁸
• Nationwide, 97 percent of public libraries had access to the Internet.
• Internet terminals available for public use in public libraries nationwide numbered 141,000, or 2.5 per 5,000 population. The average number of internet terminals available for public use per stationary outlet was 8.6.⁹
• Ninety-nine percent¹⁰ 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 1.9 billion, or 6.8 materials circulated per capita. By state, the highest circulation per capita was 14.6, and the lowest was 2.1.
• Nationwide, 23.3 million library materials were loaned by public libraries to other libraries.
• Nationwide, reference transactions in public libraries totaled 301.8 million, or 1.1 reference transactions per capita.
• Nationwide, library visits to public libraries totaled 1.2 billion, or 4.5 library visits per capita.

• Nationwide, public libraries had 785.1 million books and serial volumes in their collections, or 2.8 volumes per capita, in FY 2002. By state, the number of volumes per capita ranged from 1.7 to 5.1.
• Public libraries nationwide had 35.7 million audio materials and 28.7 million video materials in their collections.
• Nationwide, public libraries provided 6.6 materials in electronic format per 1,000 population (e.g., CD-ROMs, magnetic tapes, and magnetic disks).

• Public libraries had a total of 136,000 paid full-time-equivalent (FTE) staff in FY 2002, or 12.3 paid FTE staff per 25,000 population. Of the total FTE staff, 22 percent, or 2.7 per 25,000 population, had master's degrees from programs of library and information studies accredited by the American Library Association ("ALA-MLS" degrees); 11 percent were librarians by title but did not have the ALA-MLS degree; and 67 percent were in other positions.
• Forty-six percent of all public libraries, or 4,211 libraries, had librarians with ALA-MLS degrees.

Operating income

• In FY 2002, 79 percent of public libraries' total operating income of about $8.6 billion came from local sources, 12 percent from state sources, 1 percent from federal sources, and 9 percent from other sources, such as monetary gifts and donations, interest, library fines, and fees.
• Nationwide, the average total per capita¹¹ operating income for public libraries was $30.97. Of that, $24.49 was from local sources, $3.61 from state sources, $.17 from federal sources, and $2.69 from other sources.
• Per capita operating income from local sources was under $3.00 for 9 percent of public libraries, $3.00 to $14.99 for 34 percent of libraries, $15.00 to $29.99 for 33 percent of libraries, and $30.00 or more for 24 percent of libraries.¹²

• Total operating expenditures for public libraries were $8 billion in FY 2002. Of this, 65 percent was expended for paid staff and 14 percent for the library collection.
• Thirty percent of public libraries had operating expenditures of less than $50,000, 41 percent expended $50,000 to $399,999, and 29 percent expended $400,000 or more.
• Nationwide, the average per capita operating expenditure for public libraries was $28.94. By state, the highest average per capita operating expenditure was $53.93, and the lowest was $13.14.
• Expenditures for library collection materials in electronic format were 1 percent of total operating expenditures for public libraries. Expenditures for electronic access were 3 percent of total operating expenditures.

Glover, D. (2001). Public Library Trends Analysis, Fiscal Years 1992-1996 (NCES 2001-324). Available: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2001324.

Kindel, C.B. (1994). Report on Coverage Evaluations of the Public Library Statistics Program (NCES 94-430). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.

Kindel, C.B. (1995). Report on Evaluation of Definitions Used in the Public Library Statistics Program (NCES 95-430). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.

Kroe, P.E., O'Shea, P., Craig, T., Freeman, M., Hudgins, L., McLaughlin, J.F., and Ramsey, C.J. (2005). Data File (Public Use): Public Libraries Survey: Fiscal Year 2002 (NCES 2004-327). Available: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2004327.

Podolsky, A. (1991). Public Libraries in 50 States and the District of Columbia: 1989 (NCES 91-343). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.

¹Trend data from some of the earlier surveys are discussed in Public Library Trends Analysis, Fiscal Years 1992-1996 (Glover 2001), an NCES Statistical Analysis Report.

²The definitions used by some states in collecting data from their public libraries may not be consistent with the PLS definitions. The NCES Report on Coverage Evaluation in the Public Library Statistics Program (Kindel 1994) and the NCES Report on Evaluation of Definitions Used in the Public Library Statistics Program (Kindel 1995) address issues of consistency in definitions among states.

³This was superseded by the National Education Statistics Act of 1994 (P.L. 103-382) and, more recently, by the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002.

⁴Of the 9,137 public libraries, 7,358 were single-outlet libraries and 1,779 were multiple-outlet libraries.

⁵This percentage was derived by dividing the total unduplicated population of legal service areas for the 50 states and the District of Columbia by the sum of their official state total population estimates. (The percentage is based on unrounded data.) Also see Data File (Public Use): Public Libraries Survey: Fiscal Year 2002 (Kroe et al. 2005).

⁶Libraries that identify themselves as the headquarters of a system, federation, or cooperative service are not included in the count of members of a system, federation, or cooperative service.

⁷Access to electronic services refers to electronic services (e.g., bibliographic and full-text databases, multimedia products) provided by the library due to subscription, lease, license, or consortial membership or agreement. It includes full-text serial subscriptions and electronic databases received by the library or an organization associated with the library.

⁸The number of users (not uses) per typical week (not per year) was reported on the survey. Survey respondents were instructed to count a user who uses the library's electronic resources three times a week as three users. In this finding, the data are presented on an annualized basis for comparison with other annual data in the report; per capita values (instead of per 1,000 population) are used due to the change in scale of the data; and "uses" was substituted for "users" for meaningful per capita comparisons as there cannot be more "users" than the population base.

⁹The average was calculated by dividing the total number of internet terminals available for public use in central and branch outlets by the total number of such outlets.

¹⁰This percentage was derived by summing the unduplicated population of legal service areas for all public libraries that provided public-use internet terminals, and then dividing the total by the unduplicated population of legal service areas in the United States. Also see Data File (Public Use): Public Libraries Survey: Fiscal Year 2002 (Kroe et al. 2005).

¹¹Per capita figures are based on the total unduplicated population of legal service areas (which excludes populations of unserved areas) in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, not on the state total population estimates.

¹²Percentages are based on unrounded data.