The report categorized almost 9,000 public libraries into peer groups based on size of population of the legal service area and total operating expenditures. Then, comparisons of service performance were made, based on 5 input variables and 7 output variables. The input variables included public library service hours per year, total librarians, total ALA-MLS librarians, total number ofsubscriptions, and total number of books and serials. NCES Publication Number: 98310