WebJunction

Inspired by Chrystie's blog post, I thought it would be good to start a discussion here. She asked if anyone had seen early instances of "information on national data that looks at how many public library PAC users there are over time". Thanks to CJ for his comment on the blog...

"IMLS collects statistics every year from every public library in the US. A recently introduced measure is “Users of Public Internet Computers”. I am not positive but I believe that the data was collected for the first time in 2005. In looking at the documentation for FY2005, it looks like they impute that stat, so not sure how solid it is.
Here is the definition from the IMLS site:
Users of Public Internet Computers
Definition: The total number of individuals that have used the Internet Computers in the library during the last year. If the computer was used for mulitple purposes (Internet access, word-processing, OPAC, etc.) and the Internet users could not be isolated, then all usage was included. Note: Each user that uses public Internet computers, regardless of the amount of time spent on the computer is counted. A user who uses the library’s public Internet computer three times a year counts as three customers.”

I wonder how and if people are collecting this data at a local level to use in their advocacy efforts.

Very excited to hear more about the study!