If you're rich you can buy books. If you're poor, you need a library.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Survey Analysis
In 2008/09 there were 84.3 million in-person visits to public libraries in Florida and 60.1 million virtual visits or remote connections. Florida public libraries are used an average of at least 7.8 times per Florida resident per year, up from the 5.24 times per year calculated in the prior 2004 study. Adult residents who use Florida public libraries via remote connection do so much more frequently than those who visit libraries in person, with an average of 56 connections reported per year.

As found in the 2004 study, library users tend to be female, slightly older, somewhat more educated, and slightly more affluent than the overall Florida population.

Figure 4 - Survey Demographics

Services offered by public libraries include checking out materials such as books, magazines and DVDs; reference services that help users find the answers or materials they are seeking; Internet and database services both in the library and via remote connection; and educational and entertainment experiences. People make use of all of the wide range of services offered in the public libraries, although checking out materials for outside use still dominates. See Figure 5.

Indispensible, essential and important to a sense of community. The library is not just books and buildings, it is our cultural repository and vital for education. Without the library, the community would not be nearly as valuable and livable.
Monroe County Public Library User

Figure 5 - Services Used In Library Visits

Most library visitors reported that they do not use the Internet while at the library. Those that do, however, average 56 minutes online per visit.

Figure 6 - In Library Internet Use

Florida’s public libraries are also used by librarians in other organizations, such as schools, colleges and universities, businesses, hospitals and governments. Organizations also use public library meeting rooms, participate in library-sponsored groups and training and use the public libraries’ access to online databases and electronic publications.

Figure 7 - Organizational Uses of Public Library Services

Remote use of public libraries is still very much a factor of comfort with the use of computers. Those who participated in the online version of the library user’s survey were more than twice as likely to have connected to the library online as were those contacted by telephone.

Figure 8 - Remote Connection by Adult Public Library Users

Note: Barcode refers to the number on a user’s library card. This number is required for use of some remote services.

Public libraries are used for many different purposes and these can be categorized as personal and recreational, educational and work-related.

Figure 9 - Purpose of Visits

Personal and recreational uses of library services account for 58 percent of all uses by adult Florida residents.

Figure 10 - Adult Library User Recreational and Personal Uses

Public libraries are used to support the educational needs of persons as both students and teachers, with the majority of the uses as students.

Figure 11 - Educational Uses of Public Libraries

Florida public libraries are also used to support residents’ work-related needs involving research, business start-ups, finances and tax information.

Figure 12 - Work-Related Uses of Public Libraries

The importance of public libraries in supporting users’ varying purposes and goals is evident by the importance users place on these services.

Figure 13 - Importance of Information Provided by Public Library

If there were no public library, the vast majority of users would pursue other sources for the information they need, yet a surprising number would still need the services but not know how to replace them.

Figure 14 - In the Absence of Public Libraries

The cost to use alternatives include the cost of user time as well as monetary costs related to purchasing or renting items and traveling to alternative locations. For those uses for which a known alternative is used, the cost to access or acquire the alternatives would be an estimated $7.1 billion, up from $4.1 billion in 2004.

Halo Spending
Public library users often combine trips to the public library with other activities such as shopping, eating at restaurants, etc. The spending by users in these activities is referred to as “halo” spending. If there were no public libraries these other activities and corresponding spending would decline to some degree. Approximately 35 percent of survey respondents reported performing extra activities in conjunction with a trip to the library. See Figure 15.

Figure 15 - Other Activities Performed During Trip to Public Library

Those who visited other places along with the library reported spending an average of $47.90 on these trips. A 1997 study found that approximately 23 percent of these purchases would not occur if the library did not exist. See What Happens When a Public Library Service Closes Down? Proctor, R., Usherwood, B., Sobczyk, G. Library Management. MBC University Press, vol. 18, No. 1, 1997, pp. 59-64.

Social Value
Public support of public libraries is a reflection of, and therefore depends upon, the perceived value of the library to each taxpayer, family and community. Perceived value is the benefit a consumer expects to gain from a product or service, either tangibly or psychologically. The perceived value of a product or service has a direct effect on demand for that product or service.

The price or cost of an item is typically used as a way to determine its value to an individual. Where services are provided for free or at a cost not readily ascertainable to the user, as is the case with public libraries, other methods are needed to measure perceived value.

One way is to ask users to rank order or rate an item amongst a list of other items in order to determine preference. When asked which they would prefer to have on their own street in a new community, nearly half of Florida residents said they preferred a public library over a park, police station, job center or elementary school.

Figure 16 - Most Want to Have on Own Street

Public library users were also asked their perceptions on the impact a public library located near their home would have on property values. Over one-half thought that their property values would increase if a public library located nearby. See Figure 17.

Figure 17 - Effect on Perceived Property Values

Florida public library users were also asked how they viewed public libraries – as an essential service or cultural amenity. Over 80 percent saw public libraries as an essential service.

Figure 18 - Essential Service or Cultural Amenity

Lastly library users were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with three statements regarding public libraries.

Figure 19 - Agreement with Statements about Public Libraries

There are also methods that help quantify perceptions of perceived value by asking people to place dollar values on their choices. The fundamental monetary measure of value in economics is based on the concept of substitution and trade-offs that can be expressed in terms of willingness to pay or willingness to accept payment. Based on his or her economic situation, each individual can choose to consume private, public and other non-market goods, including library services. The trade-offs that people make as they choose less of one good and substitute more of another reveal something about the values people place upon these goods.

The contingent valuation method is a direct and explicit method that uses surveys to value public goods. The method circumvents the absence of markets for public goods by presenting the respondents with a hypothetical market in which they have the opportunity to “buy” or “sell” the good in question. The method is based on the individual’s own assessment of the good to be valued and aims at eliciting people’s willingness to pay in money amounts for a change in the provision of a non-market good, such as public libraries.

Florida public library users were asked both how much they would sell their library card for as well as how much they would pay to buy a card annually. The average “selling price” was $26.84 – although fully 56 percent of respondents said they would not give up their library card. The average price to “buy” a card was $31.34, although over 35% of respondents were willing to pay $31 or more per year. See Figure 20.

Figure 20 - Willingness to Buy or Sell a Public Library Card