Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Library roles

According to the national survey of public library's roles, from 1993, providing educational support was, for all age ranges, consistently rated higher then the more community-space oriented choices. How does this compare to the priorities of public libraries where you work/have worked? Should this change the way public libraries promote themselves within the community?

Why does it matter that non-Caucasian groups rated the roles of the library higher in addition to indicating a higher per capita expenditure? Do you think this is reflected in who uses the public library, in your observations?

WLA presents some statistics from 2003 showing that "the annual statewide average per capita local and county tax support for public library service in 2003 was $30.59." If you want to read more about the tax support or other library statistics from 2003 the website is: http://www.wla.lib.wi.us/legis/relevance.htm

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