Public Libraries in the United States Survey, 2015

The Public Libraries Survey (PLS) provides statistics on the status of public libraries in the United States. It is a voluntary survey conducted annually by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 survey is the 27th in the series.

The data files include all public libraries identified by state library administrative agencies in the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and the outlying areas of American Samoa and Guam. The reporting unit for the survey is the administrative entity, defined as the agency that is legally established under local or state law to provide public library service to the population of a local jurisdiction. In this survey, the term public library means an administrative entity.

For Fiscal Year 2015, IMLS collected the following information via a web-based survey for the PLS:

<strong>Library Data</strong> - Data on each public library, such as its name and address, population of legal service area, service outlets, collections, full-time-equivalent staff, and operating revenue and expenditures. State characteristics data, including the reporting period starting and ending dates, the state total population estimate, and the total unduplicated population of legal service areas for the state. These data are contained in dataset 1 and include 9,251 records; 9,231 were public libraries and 20 were administrative entities that closed or temporarily closed for FY 2015.

<strong>State Data</strong> - Each state library agency reported these data on the "State Characteristics" record because they are not library-level data. These data are in dataset 2 and include 53 records, one for each state and outlying area.

<strong>Outlet Data</strong> - Data on each public library service outlet, such as its name and address, type, county location, metropolitan status, square footage, public service hours per year, and number of weeks a library outlet is open. These data are in dataset 3 and include 17,408 total records. The file includes identifying information and a few basic data items for public library service outlets (central, branch, bookmobile, and books-by-mail-only outlets). The file includes 17,328 outlets in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, 8 outlets in the outlying areas, and 72 records for outlets that were reported as closed or were temporarily closed for FY 2015.

This data collection is useful to researchers, journalists, the public, and policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels. These data are used by federal, state and local officials, professional associations, and local practitioners for planning, evaluation, and policy making.

公共图书馆调查（Public Libraries Survey，PLS）提供美国公共图书馆现状的统计数据。该调查由博物馆与图书馆服务研究所（Institute of Museum and Library Services，IMLS）每年自愿开展。2015财年（Fiscal Year，FY）调查是该系列的第27次调查。

数据文件涵盖美国50个州、哥伦比亚特区以及美属萨摩亚和关岛等偏远地区的州立图书馆行政机构所认定的所有公共图书馆。调查的报告单位为行政实体，即根据地方或州法律合法设立、为当地辖区居民提供公共图书馆服务的机构。本调查中，‘公共图书馆’一词指的是行政实体。

**图书馆数据**——各公共图书馆的相关数据，例如名称与地址、法定服务区人口、服务网点、馆藏、全职等效员工数量以及运营收支情况。州特征数据包括报告期起止日期、州总人口估计数以及该州法定服务区的非重复总人口数。这些数据包含在数据集1中，共9251条记录；其中9231条为公共图书馆记录，20条为2015财年关闭或临时关闭的行政实体记录。

**州数据**——各州图书馆机构在‘州特征’记录中上报这些数据，因其不属于图书馆层面的数据。这些数据包含在数据集2中，共53条记录，每个州和偏远地区各一条。

**服务网点数据**——各公共图书馆服务网点的相关数据，例如名称与地址、类型、所在县、都市状态、建筑面积、年度公共服务时长以及开放周数。这些数据包含在数据集3中，共17408条记录。该文件包含公共图书馆服务网点（中心馆、分馆、流动图书馆及仅邮寄图书网点）的标识信息和若干基础数据项。其中，美国50个州及哥伦比亚特区有17328个网点，偏远地区有8个网点，另有72条记录为2015财年上报的关闭或临时关闭的网点记录。

本数据收集对研究人员、记者、公众以及联邦、州和地方各级政策制定者均具有价值。联邦、州和地方官员、专业协会及地方从业者利用这些数据开展规划、评估与政策制定工作。