CHICAGO, April 13 2009 - The value of libraries in communities across the country continued to grow in 2008 -- and accelerated dramatically as the national economy sank and people looked for cost effective resources in a time of crisis, according to the American Library Association's (ALA) annual State of America's Libraries report, released today as part of National Library Week, April 12-18, 2009.
U.S. libraries experienced a dramatic increase in library card registration as the public continues to turn to their local library for free services. More than 68 percent of Americans have a library card. This is the greatest number of Americans with library cards since the American Library Association (ALA) started to measure library card usage in 1990, according to a 2008 Web poll conducted by Harris Interactive.
The report also states 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.
However, public funding did not keep pace with use, according to a survey conducted by the ALA. Forty-one percent of states report declining state funding for U.S. public libraries for fiscal year 2009. Twenty percent of these states anticipate additional reductions in the current fiscal year.
Libraries continue to report that job-related activities are a priority use of their computers and Internet services. Nationwide, libraries are offering programs tailored to meet local community economic needs, providing residents with guidance (including sessions with career advisers), training and workshops in resume writing and interviewing, job-search resources and connections with outside agencies that offer training and job placement.
ALA President Jim Rettig said, "As illustrated in the ALA's State of America's Libraries Report, in times of economic hardship, Americans turn to -- and depend on -- their libraries and librarians."
Other key findings in the 2009 State of America's Libraries report:
-- 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.
-- Individual visits to school library media centers increased significantly at the schools that responded to both the 2007 and 2008 surveys: up 22.7 percent for the 50th percentile, up 12.5 percent for the 75th percentile and up almost 25 percent for the 95th percentile Hours for Hours for Selected activities. There were no major year-to-year differences in the responses with regard to the other variables.
-- 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.
The ALA State of America's Library Report [www.ala.org/2009state] is produced annually and reports on key library trends and data.
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