From Awareness to Funding: A study of library support in America

OCLC was awarded a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to explore attitudes and perceptions about library funding and to evaluate the potential of a large-scale marketing and advocacy campaign to increase public library funding in the U.S. The findings of this research are now available in the OCLC report, From Awareness to Funding: A study of library support in America.Among the findings from the report:Library funding support is only marginally related to library visitationPerceptions of librarians are an important predictor of library funding supportVoters who see the library as a 'transformational' force as opposed to an 'informational' source are more likely to increase taxes in its supportThe report suggests that targeting marketing messages to the right segments of the voting public is key to driving increased support for U.S. public libraries