Library Compare

Pick a public library system. Its spending, use and capacity are shown per person in its legal service area, next to the median system in its state and the median system nationally — above the demographics of the community it serves.

State Library system

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How this library compares per person in the legal service area

This library

State median

U.S. median

The community it serves County · State · U.S.

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Source, and where to find more

Every figure on this page comes from the IMLS Public Libraries Survey (PLS), an annual census of U.S. public libraries collected with the state library agencies. Community figures are American Community Survey 5-year estimates.

This page carries two fiscal years — current and prior — and no history, by design. It exists to compare a library with its community and its peers, not with its own past. IMLS publishes the full back series and runs its own tools, which are free, official, and less widely known among library staff than they deserve to be:

Public Libraries Survey — every published fiscal year as a downloadable file, with documentation. This is where the history is.
Library Search & Compare — IMLS's own interactive dashboard for looking up and comparing individual public libraries.
SLAA Survey Comparison Tool — a different survey: State Library Administrative Agencies, the state-level agencies that fund and support libraries, rather than the libraries themselves. State comparison dashboard with its own back years.