Every Library and Museum in America, Mapped
http://travelinlibrarian.info/2013/06/every-library-and-museum-in-america-mapped/
If you have ever felt overwhelmed by the ubiquity of McDonald’s, this stat may make your day: There are more public libraries (about 17,000) in America than outposts of the burger mega-chain (about 14,000). The same is true of Starbucks (about 11,000 coffee shops nationally).
“There’s always that joke that there’s a Starbucks on every corner,” says Justin Grimes, a statistician with the Institute of Museum and Library Services in Washington. “But when you really think about it, there’s a public library wherever you go, whether it’s in New York City or some place in rural Montana. Very few communities are not touched by a public library.”
In fact, libraries serve 96.4 percent of the U.S. population, a reach any fast-food franchise can only dream of. On a map, that vast geography looks like this:
Grimes built that map this past weekend during the National Day of Civic Hacking, using the agency’s database of public libraries. Each of those dots refers to an individual branch library (and a few bookmobiles), out of a total of 9,000 public library systems.
Read the full article and view the interactive maps @ TheAtlanticCities.com.”
Stephen
17 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.
Continuing the Discussion
Libraries serve 96.4 % of the U.S. population. RT @sabram: Every Library and Museum in America, Mapped: http://t.co/ri5SWOfTFN
RT @sabram: Every Library and Museum in America, Mapped: http://t.co/6oJhDexkfw
@AndyArthur Impressive, huh? With digital divide still prevalent…esp ADKs/NNY…another reason why we need to support our libraries. @sabram
RT @sabram: Every Library and Museum in America, Mapped: http://t.co/6oJhDexkfw
RT @sabram: Every Library and Museum in America, Mapped: http://t.co/6oJhDexkfw
Gail Supernois Hedstrom liked this on Facebook.
“@sabram: Every Library and Museum in America, Mapped: http://t.co/I4zXzAi6zO”. Starbucks & public #library on every corner.
RT @sabram: Every Library and Museum in America, Mapped: http://t.co/6oJhDexkfw
Amy Byrne-Henderson liked this on Facebook.
kind of supports some of those unfortunate comments Mr. Ford made about Toronto libraries several months back, doesn’t it?
Ghyslain: Not really. His comments were dead worng in that Ford frere Doug used this soundbite to refer to urban Toronto in Etobicoke where this isn’t true at all. The reality is that the libraries win on numbers because they serve the small towns and villages where McDonalds & Starbucks won’t go because there’s no business case for it despite the need.
a similar map should be done with Canada.
RT @sabram: Every Library and Museum in America, Mapped: http://t.co/6oJhDexkfw
Virginia C Hire Damrauer liked this on Facebook.
Preliminary web search offers similar ratios in Canada. But when it comes to Tim Hortons outlets in Canada – that’s a tight race with number of libraries at about 3100!
Every Library and Museum in America, Mapped – Stephen’s Lighthouse #libraries http://t.co/mq002cIsPQ
RT @littlestbee: Libraries serve 96.4 % of the U.S. population. RT @sabram: Every Library and Museum in America, Mapped: http://t.co/ri5SW…