Library Worklife

Statistics

Public Libraries Survey

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) publishes data collected through the Public Libraries Survey by the Federal-State Cooperative System. The most current issue of Public Libraries in the United States: Fiscal Year 2001 has some relevant information for salary and benefit data seekers.

The entire report is available in a .pdf. It primarily includes usage and materials statistics from the nation's 9,129 public libraries, but there is some information about the staff of the libraries. In 2001, there were 133,000 paid full-time employees in public libraries. Librarians with ALA-accredited MLS degrees accounted for 30,590 employees, or 23%; 11% of public library employees have the title of librarian without the ALA-accredited MLS degrees. Sixty-seven percent (67%) of staff were in other positions, thus confirming the oft-repeated statistic that two-thirds of library employees are support staff or non-librarians.

NCES also collects and publishes data on academic, school media and state library agencies.