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Non-Resident Reference and PC Use Survey in Public Libraries Final Tallies

We have revised and finalized the tally of results from 21 public libraries of a voluntary survey of reference and computer use by non-residents in April.  Again, thanks to the libraries for their participation and we thank Dawn Fanning for doing the lion's share of the work crunching these numbers.  Dawn pointed out that some of the uncommon non-residents were from Spain, UK, South Africa, Canada, Michigan, Florida, Texas, and California.


The survey indicated that 19 percent of reference questions are posed by non-residents.  PC use showed a similar ratio, but slightly lower percentage of non-residents' use--16 percent..

Table One: Reference Questions in Public Libraries
Table Two: Reference Questions by Mode
Table Three: Personal Computer Use in Public Libraries by Resident/Non-Resident and Length of Use
Table Four: PC Use Showing Percentage of Use by Mode
Table Five - Non-Resident Circulation Ranked by Highest Percent and Reference Questions and PC Use Rankings