In 2019, there were around ****** in-person visits to public libraries per 100 people in the United States. In the same year, there were around ****** circulated library items per 100 people. In-person visitation peaked in 2009 with around ***** visits per 100 people. The number of circulated items peaked in 2010 with ***** circulated items per 100 people.

The Integrated Library System (ILS) is composed of bibliographic records including inventoried items, and patron records including circulation data. The data is used in the daily operation of the library, including circulation, online public catalog, cataloging, acquisitions, collection development, processing, and serials control. This dataset represents the usage of inventoried items by active patrons. Per the California State Library definition, San Francisco Public Library defines active patrons as a) patrons with unexpired library cards and b) patrons who had circulation activity within the last three years.

Self-reported data from approximately 380 public libraries, First Nation public libraries and contracting organizations. The data includes:

• general information including address
• financial information
• holdings information
• staffing information
• facilities information
• activities information including typical week data
• partnership information (2011 onwards)

Data from 2011 and onwards is from a refreshed database. New fields were added for:

• provincial funding types
• project grant types
• special collections holdings
• circulation of E-resources including E-books
• lending laptops
• program types
• readers advisory transactions
• information technology support

In 2012, new fields were added for:

• E-readers
• requests for accessible format materials
• business and economic partnerships.

In 2013 more fields were added for social media visits and other professional staff.

In 2016 a field was added for indigenous language training and retention, while circulating and reference holdings information was combined.

In 2017 fields were added for e-learning services, students hired for a summer or semester, circulating wireless hot spots, and library service visits to residence-bound people.

In 2019 fields were added for Facility Rentals and Bookings, ‘Pop-up’ Libraries, Extended Services and Facilities, Government Services Partnerships, and Business and Economic Sector Partnerships.

The database uses the common name "LibStats".

From 2005 to 2019, the share of visitors in public libraries in England decreased overall. Especially, the percentage of male respondents claiming to have visited a public library in the year previous to the survey dropped significantly, passing from 43.8 percent in 2005 to 26 percent in 2019.

This represents public library cardholder physical book checkouts, electronic book checkouts, computer usage and WiFi usage.

Computer sessions are counted using software. EnvisionWare Computer Access and Reservation System allows library patrons to schedule time to use library computers. In addition, the Envisionware Database tracks the number of print jobs by user and printer. This functionality allows DCPL to track the number of sessions, hours of usage at each DCPL computer workstation, and the number of print jobs and pages at each printer. The output of this EnvisionWare system is a dataset that tracks the number of unique computer sessions, total hours of computer usage, printer sessions, and printer usage at each DCPL workstation by user account. The dataset includes personally identifiable information (PII) of users.WiFi sessions are also counted using software. Cisco-Meraki Wi-Fi system allows library patrons to connect to DCPL Wi-Fi. This functionality allows DCPL to track the number of wireless devices connected to DCPL Wi-Fi. The output of this Cisco-Meraki Wi-Fi system is a dataset that tracks the number Wi-Fi connections at each DCPL Branch.Gate counts are tracked Vea Web is a database system that tracks the number of entries into each library facility using heat sensors on the door of each facility. This functionality allows DCPL to track the volume of library entries at each DCPL branch every hour. The output of this Vea Web database system is a dataset that is used to report branch visits.

The Public Libraries data set aggregates individual library services and finance data to the town level. Public libraries provide free borrowing privileges and services to their patrons and receive financial support from local tax funds. Public libraries may be municipal, which are established by and administrative units of local government, or association, which are not units of town government but receive some public funding. Some towns are served by more than one public library. Library visits include all persons entering a library for any purpose, including persons attending meetings or activities and persons requiring no staff assistance. Circulation counts all library materials of all formats lent out for use outside the library, including renewals. Registered borrowers are all town residents to whom a library has issued membership. Reference questions counts all interactions in which library staff provide information, knowledge, or recommendations to patrons. Town tax appropriation indicates the funds allotted to the library's operation budget from the town. The Adjusted Equalized Net Grand List per Capita (AENGLC) measures town wealth based on property tax and income per capita.

From 2005 to 2019, the share of individuals that visited a public library in England decreased gradually. According to the survey, roughly 48 percent of respondents claimed to have visited a public library in 2005. This share reached a record low of 31.4 percent in 2019.

Usage statistics for library

This dataset provides the monthly WiFi usage statistics since 2023 for all public libraries in East Baton Rouge Parish. The WiFi usage statistics are organized by branch, year, and month. Only connections made by patrons to the public-facing networks are included in these metrics, not staff connections made to the internal networks. WiFi use on the Outreach Bookmobiles is also not included in this count.

The Chicago Public Library offers free WiFi at all locations. Chicago Public Library consists of the Harold Washington Library Center, Sulzer, Legler and Woodson regional libraries and over 70 neighborhood branches. Many locations experience sporadic closures to perform facilities upgrade or emergency closures due to heating or air conditioning issues, or area power outages.

From 2011 to 2019, the share of individuals aged between 16 and 24 years that reported visiting a public library in England decreased overall. In 2011, 34.5 percent of respondents within this age group claimed to have visited a public library at least once a year. In 2019, this share dropped to 20.8 percent.

Annual statistical data on Public Library Services from each Queensland Council from 2010-11 financial year onwards.

This dataset includes Council level data on expenditure, collections, usage, membership, events, and services. Branch level data on facilities, opening hours, and services is also included

Additional background information can be found on the Public Library Statistics web page: http://plconnect.slq.qld.gov.au/manage/statistics

Context

San Francisco's Integrated Library System (ILS) is composed of bibliographic records including inventoried items, patron records, and circulation data. The data is used in the daily operation of the library, including circulation, online public catalog, cataloging, acquisitions, collection development, processing, and serials control. This dataset represents the usage of inventoried items by patrons (~420K records).

Content

The dataset includes approximately 420,000 records, with each record representing an anonymized library patron. Individual columns include statistics on the type code and age of the patron, the year the patron registered (only since 2003), and how heavily the patron has been utilizing the library system (in terms of number of checkouts) since first registering.

For more information on specific columns refer to the official data dictionary and the information in the Column Metadata on the /Data tab.

Acknowledgements

The data is provided by SF Public Library via the San Francisco Open Data Portal, under the PDDL 1.0 ODC Public Domain Dedication and Licence (PDDL).

Photo via Flickr Kolya Miller (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

Inspiration

• What attributes are most associated with library activity (# of checkouts, # of renewals)?
• Can you group the data into type of patrons? What classifiers would you use to predict patron type?

As of June 2020 in the Netherlands, following a consumer survey about reading behaviours, approximately 35 percent of respondents used either the central branch, regional branch or the returns and collection points of their public library. However, over half of respondents also indicated that they had not visited a library in the past 12 months.

East Baton Rouge Parish Library computer usage statistics are organized by branch, year, and month. This dataset only includes the count for library patrons who have logged in to the Library’s public computers, located at any of the 14 locations.

The State Library of Oregon collects annual service measures, financial data, and other statistics from all legally-established public libraries in the state, as per Oregon Revised Statue 357.520 (Annual report). The data reporting period matches the state fiscal year (July 1 through June 30). This dataset includes all Oregon Public Library Statistical Report data from each year starting in FY2009-2010, and is updated annually. Reporting periods are identified as the year the report was submitted (i.e., FY2009-2010 data is identified as 2010 in the Year column).

Libraries Statistics: CE. Table 06. Percentage distribution of libraries according to the users weekly usage time by type of library. National.

This dataset contains data from the National Center for Education Statistics' Academic Library Survey, which was gathered every two years from 1996 - 2014, and annually in IPEDS starting in 2014 (this dataset has continued to only merge data every two years, following the original schedule). This data was merged, transformed, and used for research by Starr Hoffman and Samantha Godbey.This data was merged using R; R scripts for this merge can be made available upon request. Some variables changed names or definitions during this time; a view of these variables over time is provided in the related Figshare Project. Carnegie Classification changed several times during this period; all Carnegie classifications were crosswalked to the 2000 classification version; that information is also provided in the related Figshare Project. This data was used for research published in several articles, conference papers, and posters starting in 2018 (some of this research used an older version of the dataset which was deposited in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas's repository).SourcesAll data sources were downloaded from the National Center for Education Statistics website https://nces.ed.gov/. Individual datasets and years accessed are listed below.[dataset] U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Academic Libraries component, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), (2020, 2018, 2016, 2014), https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/login.aspx?gotoReportId=7[dataset] U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Academic Libraries Survey (ALS) Public Use Data File, Library Statistics Program, (2012, 2010, 2008, 2006, 2004, 2002, 2000, 1998, 1996), https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/libraries/aca_data.asp[dataset] U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Institutional Characteristics component, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), (2020, 2018, 2016, 2014), https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/login.aspx?gotoReportId=7[dataset] U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Fall Enrollment component, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), (2020, 2018, 2016, 2014, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2006, 2004, 2002, 2000, 1998, 1996), https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/login.aspx?gotoReportId=7[dataset] U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Human Resources component, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), (2020, 2018, 2016, 2014, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2006), https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/login.aspx?gotoReportId=7[dataset] U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Employees Assigned by Position component, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), (2004, 2002), https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/login.aspx?gotoReportId=7[dataset] U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Fall Staff component, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), (1999, 1997, 1995), https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/login.aspx?gotoReportId=7

This dataset contains information about Norfolk Public Library active users by month starting in July 2016. This information will be updated annually. Active users include users whose accounts have had any activity during the previous three years including card renewal, fines added, payments made, or computer usage. This dataset is updated monthly.