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IMLS Public Library Survey

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Institute of Museum and Library Services; United States Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences. National Center for Education Statistics

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  imls_pls 02/12/2025 02:48:PM

Project Citation: 

Institute of Museum and Library Services, and United States Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences. National Center for Education Statistics. IMLS Public Library Survey. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-02-12. https://doi.org/10.3886/E219152V1

Project Description

Project Title:  View help for Project Title IMLS Public Library Survey
Summary:  View help for Summary The Public Libraries Survey (PLS) is an annual survey of all public libraries in the United States, conducted by the Institute for Museum and Libraries Services (IMLS). Data are collected from approximately 9,000 public libraries with approximately 17,000 individual public library outlets (main libraries, branches, and bookmobiles) in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and outlying territories. At the state level, the PLS is administered by Data Coordinators, appointed by the chief officer of the state library agency from each state or outlying area. State Data Coordinators collect the requested data from local public libraries and report these data via a web-based reporting system.

Data includes information about library visits, circulation, size of collections, public service hours, staffing, electronic resources, operating revenues and expenditures, and number of service outlets. Addresses and other location information for each library are provided, and latitude and longitude coordinates are included in later years. Each record represents either a public library system or a library outlet (i.e an individual library location that is part of a system) in separate tables. The data has been published in a variety of formats over the years, including: CSV, SAS, and SPSS. Documentation, codebooks, and summary and special reports are provided in PDF format.

The data is organized in three folders:

- Fiscal years 1989 to 1991: data is provided in summary reports, with no machine readable files
- Fiscal years 1992 to 2005: survey was conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics
- Fiscal years 2006 to present: survey was conducted by IMLS, data segmented in subfolders by fiscal year

Original Distribution URL:  View help for Original Distribution URL https://www.imls.gov/research-evaluation/surveys/public-libraries-survey-pls

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms public libraries; libraries; library services
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States, United States Territories
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 1989 – 2022
Universe:  View help for Universe public libraries
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) aggregate data; geographic information system (GIS) data; survey data


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Published Versions

V2 [2026-04-17]

V1 [2025-02-12]

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DDI 2.5

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