Benchmarking Tables

Robert E. Molyneux

The current focus of the work of the Archive has been to finish a project I started over 20 years ago: to collect all US government publications dealing with libraries. That work is pretty much done and now I am reassessing a few of my collection development policies. One deals with derivative works. That is, datasets that are derived from the NCES/IMLS raw data. PLDF3 and PUSUM are both derivative works and are in the Archive because they fit another purpose of the Archive: archiving library data. The Benchmarking Tables first appear with the FY 2018 data and run through the FY 2022 data. The series is sparsely documented. The State Summary/State Characteristics dataset was published through FY 2021 and has since ceased. This was one of the more important sets of data published over the years by NCES/IMLS.

As of the FY 2021 PLS, Public Library State Summary/State Characteristics data files are no longer published as separate public-use or restricted-use data files. IMLS determined that these files were potentially misleading due to the inclusion of AE records that did not meet the FSCS definition of a public library (see footnote 5). The PLS Benchmarking Tables can be used to create similar analyses of the State Summary/ State Characteristics.
Public Libraries Survey Fiscal Year 2022: Data File Documentation and User's Guide, June 2024. p. 1

I discuss a related set of data on the Notes on the current status of work on the Archive.

The files are in .csv format. A spreadsheet program can read them and convert them to the spreadsheet's format.

Number and Percentage of Public Libraries
Table 1. Number of public libraries, population of legal service area, unduplicated population of legal service area, state population estimate FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 2. Percentage distribution of public libraries by type of administrative structure - by State FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 3. Number of public libraries with branches and bookmobiles, and number of service outlets, by type of outlet FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 4. Percentage distribution of public libraries, by average number of weekly public service hours per outlet FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 5. Percentage distribution of public libraries, by type of legal basis FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 6. Percentage distribution of public libraries, by type of interlibrary relationship FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022

Revenue and Expenditures
Table 7. Total operating revenue of public libraries and percentage distribution of revenue, by source of revenue FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 8. Total per capita operating revenue of public libraries, by source of revenue, by state FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 9. Total operating expenditures of public libraries and percentage distribution of expenditures,by type of expenditure, by state FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 10. Total per capita operating expenditures of public libraries, by type of expenditure, by state FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 11. Total collection expenditures of public libraries,and percentage distribution of expenditures,by type of expenditure, by state FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 12. Percentage distribution of public libraries, by total operation expenditures,by state FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 13. Percentage distribution of public libraries, by total per capita operating expenditures,by state FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022

Services, Resources, and Programs
Table 14. Number of public library services per capita, by type of service, by state FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 15. Number of interlibrary loans provided to and received from per 1,000 population, by statee FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 16. Total, children's and young adults' programs offered in public libraries.by state FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 17. Total, children's and young adults' program attendance in public libraries.by state FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 18. Number of public-access internet computers in public libraries and user sessions of internet computers,by state FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 19. Number of wireless sessions in public libraries per capita, by state FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 20. Number of public library print materials, e-books, and print serial subscriptions per capita, by type of material, by state FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 21. Percentage distribution of public libraries, by size of print materials collection, by state FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 22. Number of public library audio and video materials per capita, by type of material, format by state FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 23. Average and median number of public library audio and video materials, by type of material, format by state FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 24. Total electronic collections in public libraries and percentage distribution of electronic collections, by source of electronic collections, by state FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 25. Total collection use, total circulation, physical materials circulation, electronic materials circulation. and retrieval of electoinic information per capita, by state FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022

Staffing and Size
Table 26. Number of paid full-time-equivalent (FTE) staff in public libraries, by type of position; percentage of FTE librarians and total FTE staff with ALA-MLS degrees, and number of public libraries with ALA-MLS librarians, by state FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 27. Percentage of distribution of public libraries, by number of paid full-time-equivalent (FTE) staff, by state FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Table 28. Number and square footage of public library outlets, by state FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022

March 27, 2025

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