Part V. The Humanities in American Life Section B. Public Libraries

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Indicator V-7 Public Library Holdings

Indicator V-8 Use of Public Libraries

Indicator V-9 Internet Access at Public Libraries

Indicator V-10 Public Library Expenditures & Funding Sources

Indicator V-11 Number and Training of Public Librarians

For many Americans, the primary point of contact with the humanities is the nation’s public libraries. While museums, historic sites, and book clubs offer occasional education for many and consistent immersion for a few, libraries are a central—and a growing—element of the public humanities.

Although the public library has been a consistent presence in the American cultural landscape, its characteristics have been changing rapidly in recent years. Once primarily disseminators of printed matter, libraries' collections now include a wide variety of other media, and changes in information technology have redefined what users expect. The Internet has further transformed the library’s traditional role as a reference source, with library staff increasingly engaged in helping users navigate the vast array of electronic resources available online.

Exploring the changes libraries have undergone in the last decade as a result of an information revolution spurred by advances in electronic technology, this section also examines the different roles public libraries play in advancing the humanities. The indicators here describe trends in library holdings, use patterns, and funding, and consider the numbers and qualifications of the professionals who staff them. In the future, the Humanities Indicators Project will attempt to examine libraries’ sponsorship of programs in history, literature, and music. Project personnel are currently investigating available data sources in these areas.

Indicator V-7	Public Library Holdings
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Libraries are a particularly crucial element of the humanities infrastructure. While some scientific knowledge can become quickly outdated, much humanistic knowledge does not, and with their decades’—and in some cases centuries’—worth of holdings of literature, scholarship, and archival materials, public libraries are a primary means through which a humanistic heritage is transmitted from generation to generation.

In spite of the dramatic growth in electronic documentation, public libraries show no sign of having abandoned their traditional role of preserving printed matter and making it available to the general public. Public library holdings of print items grew steadily between 1995 and 2005, with over 120 million printed materials (books and serials) added to the nation’s public collections in the course of the decade (Figure V-7a; existing data do not permit the estimation of such statistics for humanities materials specifically; all figures provided here describe library materials on all subjects).

Figure V-7a, Full Size Supporting Data

Nonetheless, changes in media and technology have had a notable impact on public library holdings, especially insofar as their audio and visual (AV) collections have grown. In 1995, slightly less than 5% of all public library holdings were records, audiotapes, compact discs, and video cassettes. By 2005, the percentage of library holdings that were AV materials had reached 9.1% (Figure V-7b). Libraries have increased their video holdings particularly dramatically, to approximately three and one-half times what they were in 1995.

Figure V-7b, Full Size Supporting Data

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Indicator V-8	Use of Public Libraries
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Figure V-8a reveals that even with the proliferation of new media and the declining role of reading in American culture, libraries have continued to attract significant numbers of users. Americans visited libraries more often in 2005 than they had ten years before, and both total and per capita circulation increased.

Figure V-8a, Full Size Supporting Data

While Americans may have become more likely to visit and borrow materials from libraries, they have not sought more reference help. Between 1995 and 2005, the number of reference transactions per capita held steady at almost exactly one transaction per person (see the Note on Per Capita Library Statistics). Such stability may be related to the rise of the Internet, which allows users to find both electronic and print resources on their own. Unfortunately, no reliable national data exist on the character of reference transactions that would permit an analysis of their dynamics. (For data relating to other aspects of the growing role of the Internet in public libraries, see Indicator V-9, Internet Access at Public Libraries.)

Figure V-8b depicts regional variation in the circulation of library materials for the year 2005. The southern states exhibited relatively low rates of library usage, while the mid- and northwestern regions of the country exhibited the highest rates.

Figure V-8b, Full Size Supporting Data

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Indicator V-9	Internet Access at Public Libraries
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As access to the Internet has evolved from a curiosity to a necessity, libraries have taken the lead in making the technology available to their communities. The National Center of Education Statistics’ (NCES) Public Libraries Survey recorded a significant increase in the percentage of libraries providing users with Internet access, with rates rising from 72% in 1998 to 97% in 2002. The extent to which the Internet has become an integral part of libraries is also evident from the fact that as of 2003 the NCES ceased to publish counts of libraries providing such access, focusing instead on the number of library-based computer terminals with Internet access and on whether such access is keeping pace with population growth.

As Figure V-9a illustrates, the number of library-based Internet public-use terminals grew substantially between 2000 and 2005, increasing 86% in the course of those five years. The population-sensitive measure, the number of terminals per 5,000 people, saw an increase of 68%, rising from 1.9 to 3.2 (see the Note on Per Capita Library Statistics). While the total number of Internet terminals nationwide increased, a separate question concerns the geographic distribution of these resources. The states reporting the highest numbers of public-access Internet terminals per capita in 2005 were concentrated in the Midwest and New England and included Alaska as well (Figure V-9b).

Figure V-9a, Full Size Supporting Data

Figure V-9b, Full Size Supporting Data

Although state statistics provide a sense of the distribution of public library Internet access throughout the United States, they do not shed light on the differences in the level of access among areas within states—differences that arise from the fact that public libraries are, for the most part, locally funded (see Indicator V-10, Public Library Expenditures & Funding Sources).

Indicator V-10	Public Library Expenditures & Funding Sources
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The growth in public library use in the last decade (see Indicator V-8, Use of Public Libraries) has been accompanied by a steady increase in the amount of funds spent on core library resources. Between 1995 and 2005, per capita spending rose 18% from $26.73 to $31.65, in 2005 dollars (Figure V-10a; see the Note on Per Capita Library Statistics). Much of the inflation-adjusted growth in library spending has been in the area of staff expenditures, which made up approximately two-thirds of total expenditures. Expenditures on collections also grew during the first part of the time period, but then declined, the result being a net increase of only 3.7% over the decade.

Figure V-10a, Full Size Supporting Data

As Figure V-10b illustrates, the vast majority of the $9.7 billion in funding going to public libraries in 2005, 81%, flowed from local government. States and other sources (private funding and fees) were the two major sources of the other 19%. The federal government contributed 1% of public libraries’ operating revenues in 2005, most of it in the form of Library Services and Technology Act monies distributed by state library agencies (for more about these agencies’ activities and funding levels, see Indicator IV-4, State Library Agencies).

Figure V-10b, Full Size Supporting Data

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Indicator V-11	Number and Training of Public Librarians
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Well-trained public librarians play a crucial role in bringing the humanities to the American people. Librarians are involved in organizing cultural events, reaching out to students in local schools, and educating citizens of all ages in accessing the growing variety of information resources. An important measure of the vitality of the public dimension of the humanities is thus the quantity-and quality-of the librarians who serve the millions of people who visit the nation's public libraries every year and whose numbers have been growing (see Indicator V-8, Use of Public Libraries; for information on the total number of librarians nationwide and the characteristics of the humanities workforce more generally, see Indicator III-1, Size and Occupational Distribution of the Humanities Workforce).

The data indicate that between 1995 and 2005 the ranks of public librarians increased by 6,660 full-time positions, or 17%, although the bulk of the growth occurred over the first half of the time period (Figure V-11a). The number of other staff positions at public libraries also grew substantially over the period, however, with the result that the proportion of all staff who were librarians changed little. Each year, librarians represented approximately 33% of all library personnel.

Figure V-11a, Full Size Supporting Data

The trend for master librarians was similar. (Master librarians have received a master’s degree from an American Library Association–accredited program in library and information studies.)1 As Figure V-11b illustrates, the number of full-time public library positions filled by master librarians rose every year between 1995 and 2005, but much more modestly toward the end of the time period. The percentage of all public librarians who were master librarians was relatively constant over the ten years, hovering between 68 and 70%.

Figure V-11b, Full Size Supporting Data

Another perspective on the prevalence of academically trained librarians in the public library system is provided by a relatively new data item, collected beginning in 2001 by the NCES’s Public Libraries Survey, which asked states what percentage of their public libraries employed at least one master librarian. From 2001 to 2005, the percentage nationwide was approximately 45%.