If you walk into your local library, you can borrow a book or ask for help with a research question. You can also get help with your resume, access the internet on public computers, borrow a movie, or perhaps participate in some free public programming.
The Texas Library Association commissioned a study this summer to measure the return on investment for public dollars spent on libraries. They found that every dollar spent by local libraries generates almost $5 in statewide economic activity.
Shirley Robinson, the executive director of the Texas Library Association, said they did this by comparing what people get from libraries to what they could pay for on their own.
“Our research firm compared all of those services to comparable resources that one might be able to go and find in the open marketplace if you were needing to pay for those things,” she said. “And so that’s how that dollar figure of $4.74 for every dollar invested towards Texas libraries produces for an individual and community value.”
The study included data from a wide variety of libraries, from small rural systems to big urban ones. It also looked at how libraries impact the economy beyond the direct dollar calculation.
“When you look at things like just the overall support for jobs in the state, for example, we know that approximately 11,200 individuals are employed in our Texas public libraries. That’s absolutely an economic value for the state,” Robinson said. “And then the other significant number in this study was that there’s $3.8 billion in total economic benefit generated from libraries. So when you look at how those services help to support the community, that number becomes really significant.”
Robinson said her favorite library programs are ones designed with seniors in mind.
“Helping them to have access to digital resources that they may not have had the education or even experience within the past couple of decades in their lives,” she said. “We have a couple of programs that specifically train seniors on how to do things like use a mouse on a computer, how to get onto the internet and pay bills.”
These workshops help seniors stay socially engaged and help them participate in the economy, Robinson said.
“There is almost no aspect of our day-to-day lives now that doesn’t involve the internet or using a mobile device,” she said. “And so a lot of these programs in our public libraries are able to either put devices directly into the hands of our seniors or train them on how to use those devices when they are at home to give them greater independence.”
Robinson’s hope is that this data encourages state and local governments to spend more money on libraries, especially those that lost funding and staffing during the COVID-19 pandemic and haven’t recovered.
“I’m thinking right now of a couple of different libraries across the state that have had to cut their staffing by almost half over the last five or six years,” she said. “And that has a huge impact on the services that they’re able to provide, the number of hours that they are able to stay open. We very much would like to see those staffing levels increased and returned to what they were pre-pandemic.”
Robinson would also like to see more investment in library infrastructure.
“Many of these buildings were built in the 60s and 70s,” she said. “We’re really needing to reinvest in those buildings so that they can continue to serve the population that is growing in many parts across the state.”
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