Library Card Study

A National Project Analyzing Library Card Signup Practice

In 2023, with support from the Mellon Foundation, BPL launched a research project to collect and study cardholder signup policies from public libraries across the nation. Research findings have been summarized in a report published in spring 2024.

Using these findings, BPL has convened a diverse working group of public library leaders to develop a policy framework of guiding principles and best practices for cardholder registration. The overall goal is to provide public library staff, leaders, boards and community stakeholders with the tools to have informed conversations about cardholder signup policies that align with the library profession’s stated values of access and intellectual freedom. 

Read the report, access an interactive dashboard of the collected findings, or request access to the policy framework, below. 

See the Research
See the Research

BPL, with market research firm Avenue M Group, collected and analyzed cardholder signup data from over 1,800 public libraries across the United States.

Read the Report

Access the Data

Explore the data collected from the research via an interactive dashboard. The raw dataset is available by request, below.

Access the Data


 

Request for Resources

Submit your information to access the Card Access Policy Framework and/or a downloadable .csv file of the dataset collected from BPL's 2023 survey of public libraries in the United States.

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