Data Doodles: Rural Nature of Nebraska Public Libraries

Posted on November 20, 2013 by John Felton
Of the 93 counties in Nebraska, 80 have been designated as non-metropolitan.1 Within these rural counties there are 225 public libraries, or about 84% of the state’s 268 libraries. Among these rural libraries, 88% provide services to cities or villages with fewer than 5,000 residents. And within this group, 57% of the total number of Nebraska libraries serves a legal service area population of fewer than 1,000 residents. The following table, based on locale categories devised by the U.S. Department of Education, provides a broad picture of how the majority of Nebraska’s public libraries serve small, rural communities.

Urban-centric Locale Categories

Nebraska Public Libraries

City

Large: Territory inside an urbanized area and inside a principal city with population of 250,000 or more

2

Midsize: Territory inside an urbanized area and inside a principal city with population less than 250,000 and greater than or equal to 100,000

0

Small: Territory inside an urbanized area and inside a principal city with population less than 100,000

0

 

 

 

Suburb

Large: Territory outside a principal city and inside an urbanized area with population of 250,000 or more

5

Midsize: Territory outside a principal city and inside an urbanized area with population less than 250,000 and greater than or equal to 100,000

2

Small: Territory outside a principal city and inside an urbanized area with population less than 100,000

0

 

 

 

Town

Fringe: Territory inside an urban cluster that is less than or equal to 10 miles from an urbanized area

2

Distant: Territory inside an urban cluster that is more than 10 miles and less than or equal to 35 miles from an urbanized area

9

Remote: Territory inside an urban cluster that is more than 35 miles from an urbanized area

30

 

 

 

Rural

Fringe: Census-defined rural territory that is less than or equal to 5 miles from an urbanized area, as well as rural territory that is less than or equal to 2.5 miles from an urban cluster

3

Distant: Census-defined rural territory that is more than 5 miles but less than or equal to 25 miles from an urbanized area, as well as rural territory that is more than 2.5 miles but less than or equal to 10 miles from an urban cluster

46

Remote: Census-defined rural territory that is more than 25 miles from an urbanized area and is also more than 10 miles from an urban cluster

169

Total

268

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Common Core of Data (CCD), Identification of Locale Codes, from http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/rural_locales.asp.

1 According to the “core-based statistical area” system used by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
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