ULC Releases 2025 Library Insights Report

The Urban Libraries Council, a North American advocacy organization of nearly 200 public library systems, has released its 2025 Library Insights report. For four years, the ULC has been collecting data from public libraries across the U.S. and Canada that participate in its Library Insights Survey (LIS). 

This year’s report contains information shared by 122 public library systems, representing a total of 2,307 individual libraries. Of libraries surveyed, 17% "are building at least one new branch location in 2024,” ULC said. 

ULC’s findings indicate that public library visits are up 9.8% from 2023 and room reservations are up 25% from 2023 as well, with patrons coming to attend free programs or treating libraries as office space. While visits have gone up, average full-time staffing has declined 8.2% since 2019, and modest budget increases “have not kept pace with record inflation.” 

“Physical circulation has plateaued,” decreasing 1.7% overall in 2024, ULC wrote, while e-resource use has increased 58% overall since 2019, particularly in larger service areas. But while libraries serving large populations report patrons accessing digital resources, libraries serving populations of fewer than 250,000 show e-resource use sharply diminishing, which ULC attributed to a likely resource gap. 

ULC suggested that in smaller library systems, effort should be made to “pilot shared digital service hubs and regional staffing alliances.” All libraries should "double down on literacy partnerships," ULC wrote. 

The Library Insights report also flagged a concern related to the cost of digital resources. ULC observed that “in 2019, libraries spent $1.54 per capita on e-books, and by 2024 this average had increased to $2.72. Conversely, the average spend on print in 2024 ($2.77) was nearly equivalent to the 2019 spend.” The organization recommended libraries “balance investments in e-book best sellers with diversity and depth in physical collections.”