Wisconsin's Public Libraries
Wisconsin has 387 public libraries. Of these, 340 are municipal public libraries, 24 are joint libraries (combinations of cities, villages, and towns), 2 are joint city-county libraries, and 6 are tribal libraries. In addition, there are 7 consolidated county libraries, with the county library providing public library services within the county. Eight counties supplement local library service with a county library service organization. Nineteen libraries have a total of 79 branch outlets. In addition, 12 bookmobiles provide service to state residents. All of Wisconsin’s public libraries and counties have elected to participate in public library systems.
About half of Wisconsin’s public libraries are located in communities under 2,500 population. These 197 libraries serve about 500,000 residents, or 10 percent of Wisconsin’s population. The 77 largest public libraries (20 percent of all libraries) are in communities of over 10,000 population and serve nearly 4 million residents, over 70% of the state’s population.
Wisconsin’s public libraries reported growth in the five service levels in 2004. Circulation was 56.8 million, a 3.8 percent increase over 2003. The number of visits to public libraries increased 1.9 percent and totaled 31.8 million. Attendance at library programs increased more than 4 percent to a state total of nearly 1.6 million. The number of reference transactions increased by over 6 percent to 5.3 million. The total number of interlibrary loans increased nearly 17 percent with over 4.8 million items loaned by public libraries to other libraries to fill user requests. Although library services provided in 2004 increased, public library staffing remained at 2003 levels and total library service expenditures increased about 2.5 percent.
The Wisconsin Public Library Directory is available in several formats on the DPI Public Library Development Team web site. The Public Library Development Team also maintains a web page of links to Wisconsin public library websites.