Number of Libraries in the United States
ALA Library Fact Sheet 1
There are an estimated 117,418 libraries of all kinds in the United States today. No annual survey provides statistics on all types of libraries.
Public, academic, and school library counts below come from three different surveys by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES): Public Libraries in the United States: Fiscal Year 2000 (2002); Academic Libraries: 1998 (2001); and Schools and Staffing Survey, 1999-2000: Overview of the Data for Public, Private, Public Charter, and Bureau of Indian Affairs Elementary and Secondary Schools (2002), respectively.
Figures for special libraries, armed forces libraries, and government libraries come from the American Library DirectoryTM, which is a two-volume set currently published by Information Today, Inc. Find out more about this publication at the Information Today, Inc. web site, at:
http://www.infotoday.com/catalog/direct.htm#ald
(Information Today, Inc., Attn: Customer Service, 143 Old Marlton Pike, Medford NJ 08055-8750; telephone: 1-609-654-6266; fax: 1-609-654-4309; e-mail: custserv@infotoday.com; web site: http://www.infotoday.com).
|
Public libraries (administrative units) |
9,074 |
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|
Centrals * |
8,915 |
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|
Branches |
7,383 |
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|
Buildings |
16,298 |
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|
Academic Libraries |
3,658 |
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|
Less than four year |
1,438 |
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|
Four year and above |
2,220 |
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|
School Libraries |
93,861 |
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|
Public schools |
76,807 |
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|
Private schools |
17,054 |
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| Special Libraries * * |
9,170 |
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| Armed Forces Libraries |
329 |
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| Government Libraries |
1,326 |
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| Total |
117,418 |
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* The number of central buildings is different from the number of public libraries because some public library systems have no central building and some have more than one.
* * Special libraries include Corporate, Medical, Law, Religious, etc.
October 2002
For more information on this or other fact sheets, contact the ALA Library Reference Desk by telephone: 800-545-2433, extension 2153; fax: 312-280-3255; e-mail: library@ala.org; or regular mail: ALA Library, American Library Association, 50 East Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611-2795.