The last year and a half has been grueling for Colorado libraries. Of the 83 academic, public, school, and special libraries responding to an autumn 2003 Library Research Service survey, 52 reported budget cuts since July 1, 2002, for a total of over $11 million. Forty-nine of the state’s 115 (43%) public library jurisdictions responded […]
Each year the Library Research Service administers the Colorado Public Library Annual Survey, collecting data on various aspects of Colorado’s public libraries. Among the information collected is data on formal challenges to materials received by public libraries. In 2002, 16 Colorado public libraries reported a total of 70 challenges to books, materials, events or exhibits. […]
Many of Colorado’s public libraries contribute significant resources to family and adult literacy activities, despite the difficult budget climate they currently face. The federal government no longer provides direct funding for adult literacy activities in public libraries and Colorado’s public libraries have faced significant budget cuts in the last two years. But a survey conducted […]
According to a February 2002 National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) report, A Nation Online: How Americans are Expanding Their Use of the Internet, 143 million Americans, or about 54 percent of the population, were using the Internet as of September 2001. With over half of the nation’s population surfing the web, how have public […]
Since the earliest days, even before the territory achieved statehood, Colorado residents have supported libraries. In 1860 the Denver City and Auraria Reading Room was formed. On November 6, 1861 the first Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Colorado established the Territorial Library, which later became the State Library. By 1890 Colorado had 13 public […]
While Colorado public libraries thrived from the 1990s into the new millennium, state and local budget cuts that began to take effect in mid-2002 (i.e., at the beginning of the 2003 fiscal year) had a notable negative impact on public library users. Between 2001 and 2002, Colorado library users… visited libraries 1.6 million fewer times, […]
The good news is that, over the past decade (1991-2001), Coloradans have steadily increased their borrowing of public library materials—books, audio books, videos, DVDs, CDs, etc.—while Americans generally maintained a lower level of reliance on public libraries with very little, if any, change. In 1991, the average Coloradan borrowed 7.3 items, compared to 6.1 for […]
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) provides definitions for 7 specific types of legal bases for public libraries: municipal, county/parish, city/county, multijurisdictional, association, school district, and library district. 98.5 percent of public libraries in the United States can be classified under one of these headings. With the exception of association libraries, each type is […]
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) projects growth in jobs available in libraries in the coming years. Annual growth in librarian positions in the state is expected to be 1.9 percent, in library assistant positions, 2.8 percent, and for library technicians, 3.2 percent. (Definitions of these terms can be found on page 2 […]
Major fiscal changes affected the state’s public libraries in 2002, primarily for the worse, as the impact of last summer’s line-item vetoes and the continuing downturn in state and local budgets left many scrambling for dollars. For the lucky public libraries which are library districts, however, things don’t seem so dire. In fact, for calendar […]
