Facts About Alaska's Libraries

Updated: Tuesday, 21-Feb-2006 12:35:43 MST

Who uses Alaska’s public libraries?

In FY05, 79.6% of Alaska residents had a public library card. Five years ago, 64.6% of residents had a card. Membership in Alaskan libraries is growing!

Alaska residents borrowed over 4,153,000 items from public libraries in 2004. That’s 6.3 items per cardholder.

In 2004, the average Alaskan public library cardholder checked out 6.3 items. If the average cost of a hard cover book or music CD or video is $15, then every Alaskan was able to use items valued at $95 in 2004. Given the state’s expenditure per citizen on library services of $1.17, that’s value for $$ spent!

Despite an increasing number of super bookstores, video stores, and home computers, library users still seek entertainment at their public libraries. Audio and video materials comprise 28.8% of the items borrowed in Alaska public libraries in 2004.

3,389,178 users visited Alaska’s public libraries in 2004 seeking information and entertainment. If all public libraries were open 355 days a year, that’s an average of 9,547 users entering Alaska’s public libraries each day (0.015 % of the population). Add to that, the thousands of students entering school and university libraries each day and it’s easy to see that visiting libraries is an important activity in the daily life of Alaskans!

Support for Alaska’s public libraries

Public libraries: Total revenue $25,198,175

% of public library operating budgets that comes from government:

Local 87.7% = $22,097,069

Federal 3.8% = $972,160

State 3.1% = $765,300

Other (donations, fines, fees, grants) 5.4% = $1,363,646

Per capita support for public libraries by all three levels of government averaged $36.36 in 2004. Local municipalities paid for 92.7% of that support.

Municipalities outside of Alaska’s three largest cities ( Anchorage, Juneau, Fairbanks) on average provide per capita support of $45.11. Alaska’s rural libraries need your support!

In 2005, Alaska libraries received $160,672 from federal e-rate funding to maintain Internet access at public library computer workstations. The Alaska State Library provides assistance with interpretation of regulations pertaining to e-rate funding, so even the smallest public libraries can successfully apply. Over the past 8 years, both school and public libraries in Alaska have received over $120,000,000 in e-rate funding.

In 2004 Alaska libraries received $1,154,948 from grant sources administered through the Alaska State Library.

Two Alaskan libraries received $263,680 in grant funds to provide Books by Mail and other library services to Alaskans living in rural areas that have no established public libraries.

Services in Alaska’s public libraries

Internet access

Public libraries in Alaska provide more than 558 Internet-accessible computer workstations.

Only 68% of Alaskan households had Internet access at home in 2003 according to the Bureau of the Census. 99.05% of Alaskan public libraries provide Internet access to the public. Many Alaskan residents rely on libraries for access to the Internet.

Interlibrary loans

Alaskan public libraries loaned 29,391 and borrowed 30,999 items in 2004 for their users through interlibrary loan programs. Academic and special libraries also do a brisk business in interlibrary loans. Cooperation among libraries provides Alaskans with the information they need.

Libraries use interlibrary loan services to leverage their buying power and provide information that they couldn’t otherwise afford. In 2004, Alaskans obtained more than 31,000 items from other libraries, many of them loaned by libraries outside of Alaska. Libraries help Alaskans stay informed and entertained.

Underserved populations

The Alaska Talking Book Center checked out 33,069 items to 1,036 users who are visually or physically handicapped to such a degree that they cannot read or hold standard print items.

The Alaska Books by Mail service checked out 20,550 items to residents of communities that are not served by public libraries.

Programs

Alaskan libraries hosted 7,994 programs for children, young adults, and adults with an attendance of more than 158,270.

About 10,000 children and teens enrolled in summer reading programs at Alaska’s public libraries in 2004 and again in 2005. Teachers credit summer reading with maintaining students’ reading levels that might otherwise be diminished without the incentives provided by library reading programs.

Services in Alaska’s public school libraries

Professional school library specialists teach Alaska's Library/Information Literacy Standards and manage libraries in about 130 of Alaska's 493 public schools.

A 1999 study Information Empowered assessed the impact of Alaska school librarians on academic achievement in public schools, It showed that the presence of a trained school librarian had a direct and positive influence on students' test scores.

SLED: Statewide Library Electronic Doorway

Internet users know that the Statewide Library Electronic Doorway (SLED) is a well-organized gateway to information:

SLED hosted 1085 visits PER DAY in 2004!

Use of the Statewide Library Electronic Doorway (SLED) continues to rise. In 2000, it received 226,255 hits; in 2004 it received 396,041 - that’s an increase of 75% since the turn of the century.

Databases for Alaskans

Alaskan residents know that the Databases for Alaskans provide valuable access to magazines, journals, newspapers, and reference books. 420,550 Alaskans logged into the Databases for Alaskans in 2005 and conducted more than 855,400 searches.

The Databases for Alaskans is an Information Dividend costing about 60¢ per year for each resident of Alaska. And the program evens the playing field, delivering materials to all Alaskan communities with Internet access.

Since May 1999, 3,282,009 full text articles have been downloaded through the Databases for Alaskans website. If purchased with a credit card at an average cost of $12.00 per article, this represents $39,384,108 of information....purchased with funding from the Legislature for less than 1% of that total.

Alaskans know how to find gold!

Alaskans retrieved approximately 515,075 full-text articles from Databases for Alaskans in 2005. That’s 1,411 full-text articles retrieved EACH DAY.

Kids know how to get online help with homework – they go to Databases for Alaskans.

From 2-9 pm every day, Alaskan students in grades 4-12 can get online help from live tutors through Live Homework Help. In the first year of service, Live Homework Help logged 3,783 sessions and 73,531 minutes online.