The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science and ALA have released the results of their 1998 National Survey of Public Library Outlet Internet Connectivity, based on a sample of 2,500 of the nation’s 15,718 public library outlets.
The survey found that 83.6% of the outlets have Internet connectivity, 73.3% provide public Internet access, and 68.6% offer graphical public Internet access. However, 28.3% have only one public-access graphic workstation, 14.3% have only two, and only 45.3% offer graphical public access to the World Wide Web at 56 kbps or greater.
Although the poverty level of the population served does not seem to be a significant factor in determining Internet availability, only 67.6% of rural public libraries offer public Internet access, as opposed to 76.7% of suburban libraries and 84.0% of urban libraries.
The report is for sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office for $16 (stock number: 040-000-00718-1); it can also be accessed on the NCLIS Web site.
Posted April 26, 1999.