An ALA survey conducted by phone reports that 135 million American’s visited libraries last year, that 7 in 10 are either “extremely satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their libraries, 85% “agree” that libraries need more funding, and over half think that $41 or more should be spent on libraries.
These are all pretty much improvements over that last survey conducted in 2002. The survey and results in PDF form can be found here.
There is hope that libraries are still relevant. But we have a lot of work to do. $41 per year is not much and that is only 52% of respondents. With many states requiring a two thirds vote to pass any local tax, libraries have a long way to go to be appropriately funded.
What does this tell us? That we need to continue to offer books, great collections, computers and electronic resources, and programs for children and adults. We need to keep marketing library services and programs and showing that we are an important part of every community.