by Joe Miller,
Director of Development
Last week, the Washington Post’s Department of Data project ran an article looking at library use in the United States. The Post uncovered a survey from April of this year that asked more than 50 library-related questions.
The results are fascinating.
It turns out that Pocahontas County Libraries defy pretty much every nationwide trend.
Across the country, the people who are most likely to use public libraries are adults under age 30, people living in urban areas, people who attend religious services at least once a month and Democrats.
And, nationwide, library patrons are more likely to be financially well-off. About 30 percent of respondents making more than $100,000 per year visit a library at least monthly. The figure falls to 20 percent for those making under $50,000 annually.
While attending religious services at least once per month is a good indicator of library use, the results vary widely among different religions. About 41 percent of people who identify with a major non-Christian religion (Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist) use libraries at least once per month. Just 19 percent of Protestants do so. Catholics and atheist/agnostics come in at 31 and 28 percent, respectively.
The survey also uncovered stark differences across different age groups—adults under the age of 44 were twice as likely to use the library regularly as those aged 45 and older.
But the thing I found really interesting is that all those demographic differences disappear when you control for a single variable: people who live in rural areas are far less likely to use libraries than those in urban areas.
That’s a significant finding.
After all, our entire county is officially classified as rural. Indeed, West Virginia has the third-highest percentage of population living in rural areas—about 55 percent of us. Only Vermont (65%) and Maine (61%) have higher percentages of rural residents.
Demographically, we resemble groups that the Post found don’t use the library regularly. The median county resident is 49 years old, earns under $50,000 annually and identifies as Protestant and conservative.
And yet, last year, we had more than 33,000 visits—the equivalent of just under five visits per resident. Library patrons here access library materials at a far higher rate than those in surrounding rural counties, as well.
So why do we defy so many nationwide trends?
Access.
The Post found that proximity is the big factor in the gap in library use between urban and rural residents. People in urban areas live much closer to libraries than those in rural areas.
Other demographic splits are downstream of location. That is, we see higher library use among those who are young, liberal, non-Protestant because those are the people who live in cities and thus close to a library. But older, more conservative Protestants who live in a city are about as likely to use the library as their demographic counterparts.
Pocahontas County Libraries has branches near where people live.
And when libraries are nearby, residents use them more.
This does make us unusual. Not many rural counties with our population have five library branches. Not many rural counties have as many library visits as we do, either.
I’ve not lived in the county long, but already I’ve heard inspiring stories about how hard residents of our local communities worked to build and maintain local library branches. Many people donated materials, labor and funds to construct buildings and purchase books. Many more continue to do so every year.
All of you have known intuitively that when you put a library close to where people live, people are more likely to use it.
It’s kind of nice to have the statisticians at the Washington Post come along and verify that you were right.