Library Use Surges, Funding Lags

In this tough economy, with more layoffs each day and many tightening their budgets at home, more Americans turn to their libraries as they look for more cost-effective ways to find resources, such as books and DVDs.

It’s not surprising then, that the American Library Association’s annual State of America’s Libraries report (released yesterday as part of National Library Week) found that library use accelerated dramatically as the national economy sank.

The report found that library usage soared as Americans visited their libraries nearly 1.4 billion times and checked out more than 2 billion items in the past year, an increase of more than 10 percent in both checked out items and library visits, compared to data from the last economic downturn in 2001.

Unfortunately, public funding has fallen short in relation to the spike in demand.

The report found that 41 percent of states report declining state funding for U.S. public libraries for fiscal year 2009. Twenty percent of these states anticipate an additional reduction in the current fiscal year.

Other key findings in the 2009 State of America’s Libraries report:

• U.S. libraries experienced a dramatic increase in library card registration — more than 68 percent of Americans have a library card. This is the greatest number of Americans with library cards since the ALA started to measure library card usage in 1990, according to a 2008 Web poll conducted by Harris Interactive.
• Children are among the heaviest users of public-library resources. Children’s materials accounted for 35 percent of all circulation

transactions, and attendance at library-based children’s programs was 57.8 million.

• Academic libraries maintain their leading role in partnering to scan and digitize print book collections, with the potential to provide unprecedented access to millions of volumes. Large-scale digitization initiatives include Google Book Search, Microsoft Live Search Books, Open Content Alliance, and the Million Book Project.
• A survey of public, academic, school libraries and special libraries revealed that 40 percent of the 404 libraries that responded circulate games; PC games were the most frequently circulated type, offered by 25 percent, but the number of libraries circulating console and handheld games rose slightly from 2006 to 2007, while those circulating PC games and board/card games decreased slightly.
  Full text of the 2009 State of America’s Libraries is available at www.ala.org/2009state.