Washington, D.C. - The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) announces the completion of the sixth public library Internet study. Public Libraries and the Internet 2000: Summary Findings and Data Tables was prepared by Dr. John Carlo Bertot and Dr. Charles R. McClure for NCLIS. The summary findings of the 2000 study are available at http://www.nclis.gov/statsurv/2000plo.pdf.
The 2000 Internet Connectivity Study measured the level of connectivity, public access, training support and technology funding, current and anticipated, for staff and the public. Internet connectivity in public libraries is 95.7%, up from 83.6% reported in the 1998 study. Ninety-four point five (94.5) percent of public libraries provide public access to the Internet. Suburban libraries saw the largest increase in connectivity, reporting a 20% increase in public Internet connectivity since 1998. Public library outlets have nearly doubled the number of public access workstations since 1998. Seventy-five (75) percent of public library outlets have eight or fewer workstations as compared to four or fewer in 1998.
Summary data is also available on prevalence of acceptable use policies, installation of filtering software in libraries when searching the Internet, and use by the public of Internet-accessible resources including commercially produced databases.
The 2000 Internet Connectivity Study follows an earlier report, Moving Toward More Effective Public Internet Access: The 1998 National Survey of Public Library Outlet Internet Connectivity, jointly sponsored by NCLIS and the American Library Association. The 1998 study is available at http://www.nclis.gov/statsurv/1998plo.pdf. Information on the ability of public libraries to report electronic database use was gathered also. NCLIS is including a table outlining the ability of key database vendors to report a range of database use, including database sessions, searches and full text views of articles. The vendor table is available at http://www.nclis.gov/statsurv/2000ven.pdf. Copies of prior NCLIS studies are available upon request by phone at (202) 606-9200 or by e-mail at info@ nclis.gov. For more information visit the NCLIS website at http://www.nclis.gov or contact Denise Davis, Director, Statistics and Surveys at e-mail address ddavis@nclis.gov.
The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science is a permanent, independent agency of the Federal government charged by Public Law 91-345 to appraise the adequacies and deficiencies of current library and information resources and services and to advise the President and Congress on national and international policies and plans.