From Awareness to Funding 2018
Voter Perceptions and Support of Public Libraries in 2018
The American Library Association (ALA) Office for Library Advocacy, Public Library Association, a division of ALA, and OCLC partnered to investigate current perceptions about and support for libraries among U.S. voters and how they may have shifted since 2008 when OCLC published From Awareness to Funding: A Study of Library Support in America, a national study of the awareness, attitudes, and underlying motivations among US voters for supporting library funding. This report includes key new findings from the 2018 survey and comparison with 2008 results, new details on super supporters and probable supporter voter segments, analysis of cultural shifts, and recommendations for next steps. Read and share your thoughts using the hashtag #awareness2funding or by joining the Awareness to Funding - 2018 Facebook Group.
Additional research material, including the full data set, tables and verbatim responses, research panel and survey questions, report figures for reuse, supplemental analyses, and From Awareness to Funding: A Study of Library Support in America, 2008 can be found on the OCLC website.
Infographic
An illustrated snapshot of overall use, perceptions, and support for public libraries among US voters in 2018.
Download the infographic (PDF)
Events
Webinar: Voter Perceptions of Libraries: Getting From Awareness to Funding in 2018
Watch this free WebJunction webinar recording presenting the results of a new study investigating voter perceptions and support for public libraries, with comparisons to similar research conducted 10 years ago. View the recording.
For questions or more information on the report, please contact:
- American Library Association: Larra Clark, lclark@ala.org
- OCLC – WebJunction: Sharon Streams, streamss@oclc.org
From Awareness to Funding: A Study of Library Support in America is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) License.
