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Well-trained public librarians play a crucial role in bringing the humanities to the American people. Librarians are involved in organizing cultural events, reaching out to students in local schools, and educating citizens of all ages in how to use the growing variety of digital information resources. An important measure of the vitality of the public dimension of the humanities is thus the quantity and quality of the librarians who serve the millions of people who visit the nation’s public libraries every year and rely on librarians to curate and provide access to an array of print and digital materials.

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* Based on the total unduplicated population of libraries’ legal service areas. Values are for the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Calculations were performed on all libraries treated as public libraries by these jurisdictions, not only those meeting all Federal-State Cooperative System criteria for public libraries (see “About the Data” for details).

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Public Libraries Survey (1995–2005); and Institute of Museum and Library Services, Public Libraries Survey (2006–2018). Data analyzed and presented by the American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences’ Indicators ().

Under the Federal-State Cooperative System, a public library is an entity established under state enabling laws or regulations to serve a community, district, or region, is supported in whole or in part with public funds, and provides at least the following:

1. An organized collection of printed or other library materials, or a combination thereof;

2. Paid staff;

3. An established schedule in which services of the staff are available to the public; and

4. The facilities necessary to support such a collection, staff, and schedule.

A library, in this instance, refers to the administrative entity, which could be a single-outlet library or a multibranch library system. In fiscal year 2017, the most recent year for which information was available at the time of publication, 9,045 libraries operating in the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia met the criteria above. These entities provided services via 16,557 central and branch libraries, and 672 bookmobiles (M. Pelczar, L. M. Frehill, K. Williams, and E. Nielsen, Supplementary Tables: Public Libraries in the United States Fiscal Year 2017 [Washington, DC: Institute of Museum and Library Services, 2019], 1–2, ).

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* A "master" librarian is one holding a master's degree from a graduate library education program accredited by the American Library Association. Values are for the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Calculations were performed on all libraries treated as public libraries by these jurisdictions, not only those meeting all Federal-State Cooperative System criteria for public libraries (see "About the Data" for details).

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Public Libraries Survey (1995–2005); and Institute of Museum and Library Services, Public Libraries Survey (2006–2018). Data analyzed and presented by the American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences’ Indicators ().

Under the Federal-State Cooperative System, a public library is an entity established under state enabling laws or regulations to serve a community, district, or region, is supported in whole or in part with public funds, and provides at least the following:

1. An organized collection of printed or other library materials, or a combination thereof;

2. Paid staff;

3. An established schedule in which services of the staff are available to the public; and

4. The facilities necessary to support such a collection, staff, and schedule.

A library, in this instance, refers to the administrative entity, which could be a single-outlet library or a multibranch library system. In fiscal year 2017, the most recent year for which information was available at the time of publication, 9,045 libraries operating in the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia met the criteria above. These entities provided services via 16,557 central and branch libraries, and 672 bookmobiles (M. Pelczar, L. M. Frehill, K. Williams, and E. Nielsen, Supplementary Tables: Public Libraries in the United States Fiscal Year 2017 [Washington, DC: Institute of Museum and Library Services, 2019], 1–2, ).

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