Yes, it is 2014 now, but it takes a while to compile and verify all of the statistics from the 8,956 public libraries in the U.S., so the official
2010-2011 data has just been released. It’s worth a look, though, because there is more than just dry data in this report. There is a
Fast Facts sheet that summarizes the data, there are profiles for each state (Nebraska’s is
here), and there are five supplementary tables that examine select characteristics and show how the states rank in various categories. (Note: Yes, Nebraska has more than 216 libraries as shown in the profile, but we didn’t receive data from all of them.)
You will discover that U.S. public libraries served 299.9 million people in FY 2011, which is 95.3% of the population. These people made over 1.5 billion visits to public libraries, attended 3.81 million programs, and borrowed 2.44 billions items. Read it! It’s a feel-good story for all people who work in public libraries!
