Total Operating Expenditures at Public Libraries in the US, 1990-2002

Abstract

Total operating expenditures are analyzed several different ways and all indicate an increase in expenditures over the period. In 2002, public libraries in the United States had $8 billion in operating expenditures.

Total operating expenditures by Quartiles:

Note that the 95% libraries are a subset of and included in the count of Fourth Quartile libraries. This group of libraries is the same group analyzed in most of the trends pages and consists of the 8,259 libraries reporting to NCES each year from FY1990-FY2002.

This is a complex table that has the totals by quartiles and the 95th percentile libraries and the estimated impact of inflation on these dollar figures. I have started using data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Inflation Calculator for these calculations.

If we take the data from the First Quartile libraries, we see that there are two figures for 1990 but they are the same. In 1990, these libraries reported they spent $31,660,206 and since this is the first year, the inflation discounted dollar value is the same as the reported value. Each year after that, inflation takes its inexorable toll and the estimated purchasing power of the total expenditures declines. In 1991, these libraries spent more ($ 34,132,193) but its value, by this estimate, is now $ 32,766,905. That is still an increase in real purchasing power over 1990 but not as much as might appear from the raw figures in nominal dollars. Did these libraries beat inflation? Look to the last row's figures and if there is an increase in the inflation adjusted column, that group of libraries' had an increase in the value of their expenditures over the period in real terms. It can be seen that each of the groups did. It can also be seen that the total expenditures increased as the size groups of the libraries grew but that increases as a percent fell as the libraries increased in size.

Total Operating Expenditures, "1990" data

This table gives the yearly totals of operating expenditures for the same group of 8,259 libraries. Look ahead to the next table where the totals for the PUSUM database are given. Those figures are higher than those in the "1990" data for two reasons: PUSUM has more libraries and because it imputes for missing values. However, note the percent increases. Both groups beat inflation but the "1990" libraries had a greater growth rate than the PUSUM libraries. I suspect this is owing to the fact that the "1990" libraries, which are selected for analysis based on the criterion that they reported each year from 1990 to 2002, are probably better supported than those libraries that did not report each year.

Total Operating Expenditures, PUSUM

This dataset includes imputations for non response beginning in 1992 and represents, therefore, a national estimate of total expenditures, that is, all public libraries in the US.

December 3, 2004