Library Research Service

Library Jobline, LRS’s website for library job postings and resources, broke its own record for the number of jobs posted in 2017 while the number of job seekers and job posters continued to rise. Data collected from the Library Jobline website are highlighted in the most recent Fast Facts report. In 2017 employers posted 701 jobs to Library Jobline, an average of 13 new jobs a week. January was Jobline’s busiest month, with 73 new jobs posted. Similar to 2016, about two-thirds (67%) of the jobs posted were located in Colorado. However, the percentage of full-time jobs posted saw a big...

LRS recently released the latest version of Quotable Facts about Colorado Libraries, a booklet containing data and statistics about public, school, and academic libraries in Colorado. The booklet focuses on libraries working with and for their patrons, broken down into three sections: libraries working for access, knowledge, and community. Public, school, and academic libraries circulated more than 22 items for each person in the state in the past year, which provided Coloradans with access to about 123 million items overall. More than 1 in 10 Colorado households do not have access to a computer or the internet at home, but all...

Pew Research Center recently updated a report delving into the characteristics of the quarter of American adults who say that they haven’t read a book in the past year. This includes reading all or part of a book, in any format (print, electronic, or audiobook). Education seems to impact how often American adults read books. About 2 in 5 (37%) adults with a high school degree or less reported that they did not read a book in the past year. This makes them about five times more likely to be a non-book reader than college graduates (7%). Similarly, only about 1...

The International Literacy Association regularly conducts a survey of literacy leaders to find out what topics in literacy are trending and which topics are the most important. The most recent survey was open from August to September 2017. It had 2,097 responses representing 91 countries and territories. Classroom teachers made up the largest portion of respondents (27%). The survey asks respondents to rank 17 topics as a “hot” or trendy topic, and rank the same topics on importance. “Early literacy” and “strategies for differentiating instruction” were the only two topics ranked in the top five as both a hot topic and...

App design for Charlotte Mecklenburg Library in North Carolina Library Journal, in collaboration with SirsiDynix, recently conducted a survey of 618 public libraries to gather information about mobile device trends in libraries. Their report reveals the increasing use of mobile-friendly websites and apps in public libraries. Out of the libraries that responded to the survey, about 2 in 5 (37%) currently offer a mobile app to their patrons and nearly three-quarters (72%) have a website that is optimized for use on mobile devices. Libraries serving more than 500,000 patrons were more likely to respond that they have an app, resulting in about...

OCLC recently published From Awareness to Funding: Voter Perceptions and Support of Public Libraries in 2018, an update to a 2008 report. The report highlights key findings from their national study of U.S. voters about their perceptions of libraries. Two areas showed noteworthy change over the past ten years: the use of libraries as a community space and commitment to library funding. Many public libraries have been working on transforming into community hubs over the past few years, and the voters surveyed by OCLC seem to have noticed. More than 2 in 5 (44%) voters said that they value the library...