[93] in Information Retrieval
Library Facts
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (ganderso@Athena.MIT.EDU)
Tue May 26 11:14:50 1992
From: ganderso@Athena.MIT.EDU
To: libtalk@MIT.EDU
Cc: elibdev@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 26 May 92 11:13:48 EDT
This was posted from an article in College and Research Libraries News.
No wonder this is a big undertaking.
Greg
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o There are more libraries (100,000+) in the U.S. than there are
MacDonalds.
o More children participate in library summer reading programs
(700,000+/-) than in Little League baseball.
o More than 14.2 million students, faculty and public use college
and university libraries each week - more than watch the
top-rated TV network.
o Academic librarians answer more than 1.6 million reference
questions each week - that's 666 questions every minute.
o College and university libraries circulate more than 154 million
books and other items each year.
o In 24 years, federal funding for all libraries totals less than
the cost of one aircraft carrier (est.$3.5 billion).
o Public libraries cost taxpayers an average of $15.10 annually
per capita.
o Libraries save business leaders, scientists, and engineers an
estimated $19 billion a year in information resources.
From College and Research Libraries News, May, 1992 p.326 - 327.
An article in the Utne Reader, May/June, 1992, entitled:
"Libraries: An endangered species" reports that "More than 60%
of U.S. citizens visit the library at least once each year, and 40%
use it every month."
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