Rural and small public libraries in the United States are community anchors, providing critical services and resources to meet a variety of local needs. This brief provides the agency’s first targeted analysis of trends for rural and small library services.

This brief provides a demographic analysis of public access computer users and uses and demonstrates that public libraries are providing much more than basic technology access.

Like many state-level agencies, State Library Administrative Agencies are experiencing serious cuts to their budgets. These cuts come at a time when record numbers of people, across a wide range of social and economic circumstances, are turning to libraries to meet some very basic information needs.

This research brief gives an overview of the revenues, expenditures, and services provided by state library agencies (StLAs) during fiscal year (FY) 2008.

The first Research Brief identifies important changes public libraries have made to address patron needs in an increasingly Internet-centric environment and explores service differences in urban and rural communities.