Tools for the Novice

[ Prev | Contents | Next ]

Facts to Ponder

Libraries: How They Stack Up

Did you know that five times more people visit public libraries each year than attend professional or college football, basketball, baseball and hockey games combined? These and other interested statistics relating to the economic impact of libraries worldwide are included in a report from OCLC titled "Libraries: How They Stack Up. You can download a .pdf copy at http://www5.oclc.org/downloads/community/librariesstackup.pdf.

Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America

Riveting reading provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, and based on statistics from the 2002 Census. Of the adults surveyed, more than 95% preferred watching television; 60% preferred attending a movie; 55% preferred lifting weights and even 47% would rather garden than read literature.

Quotable Facts

(excerpted from an ALA PR piece, "Quotable Facts About America's Libraries, Library Advocacy Now!" updated 2004) at: http://www.ala.org/ala/pio/piopresskits/nationallibraryweek2005/libraryqf2005.htm.

• There are more public libraries than McDonald’s in the U.S. – a total of 16,220, including branches.
• Reference librarians in the nation’s public and academic libraries answer more than seven million questions weekly. Standing single file, the line of questioners would stretch from Boston to San Francisco.
• Americans go to school, public and academic libraries more than twice as often as they go to the movies.
• A 2002 poll conducted for the American Library Association found that 91% of respondents expect libraries to be needed in the future, despite the increased availability of information via the Internet.
• Academic librarians answer 97 million reference questions each year – almost three times the attendance at college football games.
• College libraries receive less than three cents of every dollar spent on higher education
• Research shows the highest achieving students attend schools with good library media centers.
• Students visit school library media centers almost 1.5 billion times during the school year – about one-and-a-half times the visits to state and national parks.
• Americans spend more than three times as much on salty snacks as they do on public libraries.
• Americans check out an average of more than six books a year. They spend $25.25 a year for the public library – much less than the average cost of one hardcover book.
• Public libraries are the number one point of online access for people without Internet connections at home, school or work.
• Some percents:
• 21% of library staff hold the MLS degree.
• 59% of libraries comply with the Children's internet Protection Act (CIPA)
• 14% of a library's operating budget is devoted to materials
• Libraries are open an average of 59 hours per week.
  
  Sources:
  ALA Office for Research & Statistics
  ALA Washington Office
  Library Research Service, Colorado State Library
• Library Journal, January 2005
  

*************************************************************************************************************

From former MLIS student Lonnie Johnson (maybe you can guess he was a business major!) -- statistics as reported in a January 1999 issue of Inc. magazine.

It is estimated that one weekday edition of today's New York Times contains more information than the average person in 17th century England was likely to come across in an entire lifetime. Here is more information on information:

Sources: 1.) Alta Vista 2.) Library of Congress www.loc.gov 3.) http://www.lexis-nexis.com 4 & 5) Pitney Bowes's "Workplace Communications in the 21st Century" study; 6) The Delahaye Group, Portsmouth, N.H. 7.) NEC Research Institute 8.) http://www.evelynwood.com.au. Main Source: Inc. Magazine, January 1999, p. 70. Also, at http://www.inc.com/magazine/19990101/

[ Prev | Home | Contents | Next ]