for the past 100? wow...um my guess would be surveying libraries and see what they have. Some of the major places NYPL, Charlotte Meck, Atlanta might have it easily located but my guess is the average library you might have trouble finding, bc statistics change so often as far as whats kept, how they do it, etc. - Sir Shuping is just sir

who has collections on history of libraries? I KNOW Maryland doesn't teach a course on that. does UIUC? Did you try something like google book search? long shot... - Christina Pikas

I think that Christine Pawley's book Reading on the Middle Border: The Culture of Print in Osage, Iowa, 1860-1900 uses circ stats. It might be a good source for seeing what sort of sources she was able to find and use. ALA archives are at U of Illinois UC, so that might be one place to contact. UW-Madison has a good collection of LIS history and Christine is at UWs SLIS - Katy S

I'd start with ALA and UIUC. (Public library statistics from 80 years ago are startling for those who believe in a golden age when everybody read...) There may be gummint series going back quite a ways as well, and I think UIUC would know where to find them. - Walt Crawford

You ought to be able to find some government statistics, also. As I recall, we have stuff at least going back to the 70s. It'd be under the department of education. - Laura H.

http://www.galbithink.org/librari... - barbara fister

Thank you all! Barbara, you rock! How did you find that? - marthalib

Good catch, Barbara--too bad I'd forgotten that paper (which I discussed in C&I March 2008--I didn't care for some of his conclusions, but his numbers appear good). - Walt Crawford

I forget how I found it but I was impressed that you can't easily find time series stats at ala.org. Just because that's where I usually would look, the big organization for the subject at hand. - barbara fister

ALA: Statistics about Libraries http://ala.org/ala... - awd

Library Statistics Bibliography http://www.libsci.sc.edu/bob... - awd

ALA Office of Research and statistics (not much in the way of historical, longitudinal; but good stuff for current use) http://www.ala.org/ala... - awd

Cali State Library, Library stats page - interesting links: http://www.library.ca.gov/lds... - awd

Personally, I like the 3rd comment above this one for the sheer number of cites (though getting some of them may be challenging( - awd

Barbara: my boss says, "Wow!" - Betsy