IMLS Public Library Survey

The Public Libraries Survey (PLS) is an annual survey of all public libraries in the United States, conducted by the Institute for Museum and Libraries Services (IMLS). Data are collected from approximately 9,000 public libraries with approximately 17,000 individual public library outlets (main libraries, branches, and bookmobiles) in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and outlying territories. At the state level, the PLS is administered by Data Coordinators, appointed by the chief officer of the state library agency from each state or outlying area. State Data Coordinators collect the requested data from local public libraries and report these data via a web-based reporting system.<br><br>Data includes information about library visits, circulation, size of collections, public service hours, staffing, electronic resources, operating revenues and expenditures, and number of service outlets. Addresses and other location information for each library are provided, and latitude and longitude coordinates are included in later years. Each record represents either a public library system or a library outlet (i.e an individual library location that is part of a system) in separate tables. The data has been published in a variety of formats over the years, including: CSV, SAS, and SPSS. Documentation, codebooks, and summary and special reports are provided in PDF format.<br><br>The data is organized in three folders:<br><br>- Fiscal years 1989 to 1991: data is provided in summary reports, with no machine readable files<br>- Fiscal years 1992 to 2005: survey was conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics<br>- Fiscal years 2006 to present: survey was conducted by IMLS, data segmented in subfolders by fiscal year<br><br>

公共图书馆调查（Public Libraries Survey，缩写PLS）是由美国博物馆与图书馆服务协会（Institute of Museum and Library Services，缩写IMLS）针对美国所有公共图书馆开展的年度调查。本次调查覆盖全美50个州、哥伦比亚特区及海外领地的约9000家公共图书馆系统，涵盖总计约17000个独立公共图书馆服务网点（包括总馆、分馆与流动图书车）。在州级层面，PLS的执行工作由各州或海外领地图书馆机构主管任命的数据协调员负责：州级数据协调员从地方公共图书馆收集所需调研数据，并通过基于网页的报告系统提交上报。

本次调查数据涵盖图书馆到访人次、文献流通量、馆藏规模、公共服务时长、人员配置、电子资源、运营收支以及服务网点数量等核心信息。数据集同时提供各图书馆的地址及其他位置信息，后续年份的数据集还包含经纬度坐标。每张独立数据表分别对应公共图书馆系统或单个服务网点（即隶属于某一系统的独立图书馆场所）。多年来，该数据集以多种格式发布，包括CSV、SAS及SPSS格式；相关文档、代码手册、汇总报告与专项报告则统一以PDF格式提供。

该数据集按三个文件夹进行组织：
- 1989至1991财年：仅提供汇总报告，无机器可读格式文件
- 1992至2005财年：本次调查由美国国家教育统计中心负责开展
- 2006财年至今：本次调查由IMLS负责开展，数据集按财年划分至不同子文件夹中