IMLS Reports Shows Over One Billion Public Library Visits in 2016

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) recently released its FY 2016 Public Libraries Survey report which provides an annual snapshot of public library use, financial health, staffing, and resources. The report showed Americans visited public libraries more than a billion times in FY16.

Highlights from the 2016 report include:

  • More than 171 million registered users, representing over half of the nearly 311 million Americans who lived within a public library service area, visited public libraries over 1.35 billion times in 2016.
  • Public libraries offered half a million more programs in 2016 than in 2015; 113 million people attended 5.2 million programs in 2016.
  • The number of electronic materials available through public libraries, including audio, video and e-books, continued to grow in 2016, with public libraries offering over 391 million e-books to their patrons in the United States.

The IMLS also released the latest data from its 2017 Public Libraries Survey. The Public Libraries Survey examines key indicators of public library use, financial health, staffing, and resources. Each year since 1988, the Public Libraries of the United States Survey has provided a national census of America’s public libraries. The data are collected from approximately 9,000 public library systems comprised of over 17,000 individual main libraries, library branches, and bookmobiles in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories.