Number of Libraries in the United States
ALA Library Fact Sheet 1
There are an estimated 123,129 libraries of all kinds in the United States today. No annual survey provides statistics on all types of libraries.
Figures for public, academic, and school libraries come from surveys by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Specifically, the public libraries numbers come from the IMLS Public Library Survey, from the latest report in the series, Public Libraries in the United States: Fiscal Year 2006 (2008). The numbers for academic and school libraries come from the NCES Schools and Staffing Survey and the Library Statistics Program surveys: Academic Libraries: 2006 (2008); Characteristics of Schools, Districts, Teachers, Principals, and School Libraries in the United States: 2003-04 Schools and Staffing Survey for the number of school library media centers in public and BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) schools; and Table 407. Selected statistics on school libraries/media centers, by control and level of school: 1999-2000 and 2003-04 for the number of school library media centers in private schools (more recent library media center data for private schools has yet to be released).
Figures for special libraries, armed forces libraries, and government libraries come from the American Library DirectoryTM 2008-2009, 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://books.infotoday.com/directories/amerlib61.shtml
(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://americanlibrarydirectory.com).
|
Public libraries (administrative units) |
9,208 |
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|
Centrals * |
9,050 |
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|
Branches |
7,542 |
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|
Buildings |
16,592 |
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|
Academic Libraries |
3,617 |
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|
Less than four year |
1,334 |
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|
Four year and above |
2,283 |
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|
School Libraries |
99,783 |
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|
Public schools |
82,569 |
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| Private schools |
17,054 |
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|
BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) |
160 |
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| Special Libraries * * |
9,066 |
| Armed Forces Libraries |
296 |
| Government Libraries |
1,159 |
| Total |
123,129 |
* 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.
NOTE: Previous versions of this fact sheet can be accessed via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine using the original URL <http://www.ala.org/library/fact1.html>. And this URL still works as a "shortcut" link to this web page.
Last updated: January 2009
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.