Public Library Services At a Glance

Scope of the At-a-Glance report

This interface allows you to search for selected statistical measures that summarize services in Massachusetts public libraries.

For additional statistics see the Data for Massachusetts report and data files. Be sure to note the year of the data you are consulting.

What is the Public Library Services At-a-Glance?

Public Library Services At-a-Glance provides annual and per capita (or per 10,000) values for selected income, expenditure, holdings, circulation, services and staffing statistics. At-a-Glance provides a quick, concise way to assemble descriptive library services data for one or more libraries.

What is the Public Library Services At-a-Glance?

Search Strategies

Select one of two ways to conduct a search. (1) You may search by the name of the municipality in which the library is located. (2) You may search by selecting among these three characteristics: regional membership, library population group and 'Kind of Community' designation for the municipality in which the library is located. Options within each characteristic are available in a series of drop-down boxes.

Municipal Name Search

Simply type in the name of the city or town in which the library is located. Names can be entered in upper or lower case, or initial uppercase (e.g.,Boston, BOSTON, or boston). There are 351 municipalities in Massachusetts.

Municipal subdivisions, such as Feeding Hills in Agawam, or Dorchester in Boston will not return any results.

Library Characteristic Search

Region

Select the regional library system of interest. (Listing of municipalities in each region.)

Population

You may select from the following library population groups:

Group 1: population under 2,000 (69 libraries)
Group 2: population of 2,000 - 4,999 (55 libraries)
Group 3: population of 5,000 - 9,999 (72 libraries)
Group 4: population of 10,000 - 14,999 (54 libraries)
Group 5: population of 15,000 - 24,999 (52 libraries)
Group 6: population of 25,000 - 49,999 (45 libraries)
Group 7: population of 50,000 - 99,999 (18 libraries)
Group 8: 100,000 or more (5 libraries)

Kind of Community

Kind of Community (KOC) is a classification of municipalities developed by the Massachusetts Department of Education in 1985. The KOC may be used to identify peer communities. You may select from the following classification categories:

Economically Developed Suburbs: Suburbs with high levels of economic activity, social complexity, and relatively high income levels.
Growth Communities: Rapidly expanding communities in transition.
Residential Suburbs: Affluent communities with low levels of economic activity.
Resort/Retirement and Artisan: Communities with high property values, relatively low income levels, and enclaves of retirees, artists, vacationers and academicians.
Rural Economic Centers: Historic manufacturing and commercial communities, moderate levels of economic activity.
Small Rural Communities: Small towns, sparsely populated, economically undeveloped.
Urbanized Centers: Manufacturing and commercial centers, densely populated, culturally diverse.