Question:
What information do you have on public school libraries, college and university libraries, and public libraries?
Response:
Among public schools that had a library in 2007�, the average number of library staff per school was 1.7, including 0.8 certified library/media specialists. On average, public school libraries had larger numbers of books on a per student basis in 2007� (2,015 per 100 students) than in 1999�00 (1,803 per 100 students) and 2003� (1,891 per 100 students). In 2007�, public elementary school libraries had larger holdings than public secondary school libraries on a per student basis (2,316 books per 100 students, compared to 1,432 books per 100 students).
From 1991� to 1999�00, the increase in college library operating expenditures was greater than the increase in enrollment; after adjustment for inflation, library operating expenditures per full-time-equivalent (FTE) student rose 6 percent during this period. From 1999�00 to 2007�, library operating expenditures per FTE student dropped 14 percent. Overall, there was a net decrease of 9 percent in library operating expenditures per FTE student between 1991� and 2007�. In 2007�, the average library operating expenditure per FTE student was $492 in current dollars.
In 2009, there were 9,225 public libraries in the United States with a total of 816 million books and serial volumes. The annual number of visits per capita梩hat is, per resident of the areas served by the libraries梬as 5.4, and the annual number of reference transactions per capita was 1.0.
SOURCE: U.S Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2012). Digest of Education Statistics, 2011 (NCES 2012-001), Chapter 7 .
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