This is National Library Week

National Library Week (@AtYourLibrary) (#nlw11) is the annual event to promote local libraries and the quality service they provide to their communities. Library trends of the past year are detailed in The State of America’s Libraries, 2011, just released by the American Library Association (@alanews). Here are a few highlights reported in American Libraries magazine (@amlibraries):

· The availability of wireless Internet in public libraries is approaching 85%, and about two-thirds of them extend wireless access outside the library. Computer usage at public libraries continues to increase.

· Almost all academic libraries offer ebooks, as do more than two-thirds of public libraries. For most libraries, ebooks are only still a small percentage of circulated items – but represent the fastest-growing segment.

· 12% of academic libraries circulate preloaded e-reading devices, while 26% are considering it. (Kindle tops the device chart at 81%, followed by Sony at 34%, iPad at 28%, and Nook at 22%.)

· 6% of school libraries circulate preloaded e-reading devices, while 36% are considering it. (The Sony Reader leads the way at 64%, Kindle followed at 47%, Nook at 15%, and iPad at 4%.)

· 5% of public libraries circulate preloaded e-reading devices, while 24% are considering it. Kindle is the leader here.

· Among academic libraries, social sciences is the discipline most likely to offer ebooks (83%), followed by science at 82%, technology (80%), humanities (77%), medicine (69%), and law (51%).

· In school libraries, children’s fiction top the ebook charts at 51%, followed by reference (42%), children’s nonfiction (39%), children’s picture books (34%), and young adult nonfiction (24%) and fiction (23%).

· In public libraries, adult nonfiction leads the way (86%), with adult fiction at 84%, bestsellers at 76%, young adult fiction at 69%, and children’s fiction at 56%. Young adult nonfiction, children’s nonfiction, reference, and children’s picture books “score” less than 50%.

· A battle over the future of widely used ebooks was joined in March, when HarperCollins announced that it will not allow its ebooks to be checked out from a library more than 26 times, raising the possibility that ebooks that are not repurchased would be available at the library for only about a year. The ALA issued its response.

Read this in full.

Rebecca Miller of Library Journal magazine (@LibraryJournal) shares 10 favorite library locations as attractions in and of themselves:

· Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, New York Public Library, New York City

· Fayetteville Public Library, Fayetteville, AR

· Seattle Central Library, Seattle, WA

· Geisel Library, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA

· Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress, Washington, DC

· Weippe Public Library, Weippe, ID

· Harold Washington Library Center, Chicago Public Library, Chicago, IL

· Boston Athenaeum, Boston, MA

· Deadwood Public Library, Deadwood, SD

· Central Denver Public Library, Denver, CO