Institute of Museum and Library Services, Public Libraries Survey
| Categories | Civic & Social Infrastructure |
|---|---|
| Detail | Public library outlet locations |
| Download Available | yes |
| Geographies | Point |
| Last Updated on PolicyMap | October 2026 |
| Public Edition or Subscriber-only | Public Edition |
| Source | Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation and U.S. Census Bureau |
| Years Available | 2024 |
Description:
Public library locations and library system statistics come from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Public Libraries Survey (PLS). The data file includes all public libraries and outlets identified by state library agencies in the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and the outlying areas of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Each point is a library outlet (a central library, branch, or bookmobile), placed at the latitude and longitude IMLS reports. Points were geocoded by IMLS based on addresses provided by the survey respondent (library administrator), and in some cases were matched to the center point of the postal zip code or zip code division. IMLS was able to locate 98.4% of library outlets on a map. Where IMLS’s coordinates fell outside the outlet’s state, PolicyMap geocoded the outlet’s street address.
Library system values: Points are shown by outlet, but IMLS reports most statistics for the whole library system (administrative entity), not for each outlet. This includes service area population, registered users, visits, computers, programs, collections, circulation, inter-library loans, staff, and finances. Every outlet in the same system shows the same values. Do not add these values across outlets; doing so counts the system once for each of its outlets. Only the outlet type, locale, number of bookmobiles, hours open per week, and weeks open are reported for each outlet.
The following indicators were calculated by PolicyMap from IMLS figures. Except for hours open per week, they are calculated at the library system level.
- Registered Users as a Percent of Service Area Population: registered users divided by service area population.
- Visits per Person in Service Area: annual visits divided by service area population.
- Uses per Public Computer: annual public computer uses divided by the number of public computers.
- People per Public Computer: service area population divided by the number of public computers.
- Computer Uses to Visits: annual public computer uses divided by annual visits.
- Wi-Fi Sessions to Visits: annual Wi-Fi sessions divided by annual visits.
- Program Attendance per 1,000 People: attendance at scheduled (live) programs per 1,000 people in the service area.
- Physical Items per Person: total physical items in the collection divided by service area population.
- Circulation per Person: total annual circulation divided by service area population.
- Electronic Circulation as a Percent of Total Circulation: circulation of electronic materials divided by total circulation.
- Children’s Circulation as a Percent of Physical Circulation: circulation of children’s physical materials divided by total physical circulation.
- Collection Turnover Rate: physical circulation divided by physical items in the collection, showing how often the collection circulates.
- Net Inter-library Loans: loans provided to other libraries minus loans received from other libraries. A positive value means the system lends more than it borrows; a negative value means it borrows more than it lends.
- Average Hours Open per Week: the outlet’s annual public service hours divided by weeks open, rounded to whole hours.
- Weeks Open: weeks open per year, rounded to whole weeks.
- IMLS marks values that are not data with status codes: negative codes (such as -1, -3, and -9) and “M” (Missing). All of these are treated as NULL values. Values IMLS suppressed are treated the same as missing values.
- Calculated indicators are left blank when the denominator is zero or missing, or when the numerator is missing. They are not shown as 0. For example, a system with no reported service area population has no per-person, per-1,000, or percent-of-population values.
- Average Hours Open per Week applies the IMLS out-of-range edit check: values below 11 or above 130 hours per week are left blank. Bookmobiles are exempt from the 11-hour minimum, because they can be open fewer hours.