Public Library Holdings
- Even before 2011, the first year for which the Institute of Museum and Library Services requested that libraries stop including back issues of serial publications in their counts of print items, growth in public libraries’ print holdings had stalled after a decade of modest increases (Indicator V-15a). Libraries’ print holdings then shrank by 10% from 2011 to 2018. When population growth is taken into account, the contraction is more pronounced, with the number of print items per 100 people declining by 17% over the 2011–2018 period.1
- Changes in media and technology have had a notable impact on public library holdings. In 2018, the number of nonprint items (1.17 billion—not pictured) held by public libraries was almost 64% greater than the number of print items.
- Audio and visual collections have grown dramatically, far outstripping population growth (Indicator V-15b). The number of such nonprint items per 100 people increased every year from 1995 to 2018. The number of video items increased at a relatively steady rate over this period, for total growth of 560%. Audio materials saw a surge in growth beginning in 2011. All told, the number of audio items per 100 people increased 1,600% from 1995 to 2018.
- As recently as 2011, the number of electronic books (ebooks) in the collections of public libraries was smaller than the numbers of other types of nonprint items. In two years’ time, however, the number of ebooks held by the nation’s public libraries came to far exceed their holdings of video or audio materials. By 2018, public libraries held 176 ebooks per 100 people, an increase of more than 6,400% over the 2004 level (the first year for which national data on this type of material are available).
Endnotes
- 1All the ratios mentioned here are based on the total unduplicated population of libraries’ legal service areas, as reported by libraries themselves. A library’s legal service area is the geographical area that by state or local statute a library is mandated to serve. “Unduplicated” refers to the fact that the population figures have been adjusted to compensate for overlapping service areas. To simply sum the populations of all service areas within a state would be to double count those people residing in areas served by more than one library.
* For the years 1995 to 2010, print materials include books, government documents, serial subscriptions, and serial backfile. For years 2011 and later, serial backfile is excluded, as the collector of these data, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, ceased to request counts of these items from states. Values presented are for the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Calculations were performed on all libraries treated by these jurisdictions as public libraries, not only those meeting all Federal-State Cooperative System criteria for libraries. The ratios of items to people are based on the total unduplicated population of libraries’ legal service areas. (See “About the Data” for details).
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Public Libraries Survey (1995–2005); Institute for Museum and Library Services, Public Libraries Survey (2006–2018). Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).
The “per 100 people” values included in this graph are based on the total unduplicated population of libraries’ legal service areas, as reported by libraries themselves. A library’s legal service area is the geographical area that by state or local statute a library is mandated to serve. “Unduplicated” refers to the fact that the population figures have been adjusted to compensate for overlapping service areas. To simply sum the populations of all service areas would be to double count those people residing in areas served by more than one library.
Under the Federal-State Cooperative System, a public library is an entity established under state enabling laws or regulations to serve a community, district, or region, is supported in whole or in part with public funds, and 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; and
4. The facilities necessary to support such a collection, staff, and schedule.
A library, in this instance, refers to the administrative entity, which could be a single-outlet library or a multibranch library system. In fiscal year 2017, the most recent year for which information was available at the time of publication, 9,045 libraries operating in the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia met the criteria above. These entities provided services via 16,557 central and branch libraries and 672 bookmobiles (M. Pelczar, L. M. Frehill, K. Williams, and E. Nielsen, Supplementary Tables: Public Libraries in the United States Fiscal Year 2017 [Washington, DC: Institute of Museum and Library Services, 2019], 1–2, https://www.imls.gov/sites/default/files/fy2017_pls_tables.pdf).
* Values presented are for the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Calculations were performed on all libraries treated by these jurisdictions as public libraries, not only those meeting all Federal-State Cooperative System criteria for libraries. The ratios of items to people are based on the total unduplicated population of libraries’ legal service areas. (See “About the Data” for details). Counts of audio and video items include both physical holdings and downloadables.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Public Libraries Survey (1995–2005); Institute for Museum and Library Services, Public Libraries Survey (2006–2018). Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).
The “per 100 people” values included in this graph are based on the total unduplicated population of libraries’ legal service areas, as reported by libraries themselves. A library’s legal service area is the geographical area that by state or local statute a library is mandated to serve. “Unduplicated” refers to the fact that the population figures have been adjusted to compensate for overlapping service areas. To simply sum the populations of all service areas would be to double count those people residing in areas served by more than one library.
Under the Federal-State Cooperative System, a public library is an entity established under state enabling laws or regulations to serve a community, district, or region, is supported in whole or in part with public funds, and 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; and
4. The facilities necessary to support such a collection, staff, and schedule.
A library, in this instance, refers to the administrative entity, which could be a single-outlet library or a multibranch library system. In fiscal year 2017, the most recent year for which information was available at the time of publication, 9,045 libraries operating in the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia met the criteria above. These entities provided services via 16,557 central and branch libraries and 672 bookmobiles (M. Pelczar, L. M. Frehill, K. Williams, and E. Nielsen, Supplementary Tables: Public Libraries in the United States Fiscal Year 2017 [Washington, DC: Institute of Museum and Library Services, 2019], 1–2, https://www.imls.gov/sites/default/files/fy2017_pls_tables.pdf).
