Public Library Services, Programs and Outreach, United States, 2015-2023 (ICPSR 38653)

Version Date: Sep 9, 2024

Cite this study |

Principal Investigator(s):
A.J. Million, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research; Denice Adkins, University of Missouri; Public Library Association; Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38653.v1

Version V1

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Summary

The Public Libraries Survey (PLS) is an annual survey of U.S. public libraries. Policymakers and practitioners depend on PLS data to allocate funding and strategically manage libraries. Academics rely on PLS data to conduct original research about public libraries. Data in the PLS come from over 17,000 outlets, and it represents a "gold standard" for national information about public libraries. While the PLS is an invaluable resource for the public library community, other organizations collect data that extends the reach and significance of the PLS.

This dataset extends the PLS using information from the Public Library Association (PLA), the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services (ABOS), and the U.S. Census Bureau. PLA data comes from Project Outcome, a free toolkit and online resource for public libraries to document the outcomes associated with public library services. Since 2015, Project Outcome has collected more than 390,000 responses to surveys at 2,200+ libraries in the U.S. and Canada describing the outcomes resulting from library services. The standardized surveys used by Project Outcome have enabled libraries to aggregate their outcome data and analyze trends by topic, type, and program. ABOS data comes from a 2023 national, non-representative survey of public libraries regarding their outreach departments, services, and vehicles. Census data is from the American Community Survey and provides demographic information regarding the geographies that public libraries serve.

As part of an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant, the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research curated these data for reuse and mapped them to libraries in the PLS. The result is a combined dataset that documents the impact of library programming and outreach on nationwide communities. To enhance these data, a committee led by the University of Missouri, School of Information Science and Learning Technologies identified supplemental variables (e.g., Census demographic figures) and guided data curation by creating a "data module" specifying curation enhancements.

Citation

Million, A.J., Adkins, Denice, Public Library Association, and Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services. Public Library Services, Programs and Outreach, United States, 2015-2023. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2024-09-09. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38653.v1

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Funding

Institute of Museum and Library Services (LG-252313-OLS-22)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

FSCS code

Restrictions

Access to these data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reasons for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2015 -- 2023 (2015--2023)

Date of Collection

2015 -- 2023 (2015--2023)

Data Collection Notes

  1. Public libraries administer Project Outcome surveys to their patrons at the end of a library program/service.

  2. Project Outcome has eight survey topics and the standardized questions are designed to capture four key learning outcomes.

  3. Libraries customize the survey templates by specifying a program and survey name, and they can add additional questions or custom introduction or footer messages.

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Sample

Convenience sampling

Universe

Public libraries in the United States

Unit(s) of Observation

Public library programs and services

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Presence of Common Scales

Surveys question types include Likert scale, yes/no, multiple choice, check-all-that-apply, and open-ended.

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Original Release Date

2024-09-09

Version History

2024-09-09 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Performed consistency checks.
  • Created variable labels and/or value labels.
  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

  • One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.