Journal Article: “Election Voting and Public Library Use in the United States”

The article linked to below was recently published by Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP).

Title

Election Voting and Public Library Use in the United States

Authors

Brady D. Lund
Emporia State University

Beth L. Hendrickson
Emporia State University

Matthew Walston
Emporia State University

Source

Evidence Based Library and Information Practice
Vol. 15 No. 4 (2020)
DOI: 10.18438/eblip29824

Abstract

Objective – This study examines whether a correlation exists between state-wide voting in federal elections and state average per capita visits to public libraries in the U.S. In so doing, it provides insight into the extent to which library patronage is affiliated with political leaning.

Methods – An analysis of data from the 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016 Public Libraries Survey and election results from the 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016 Presidential and House of Representatives elections (by state) is performed with the assistance of Tableau, a data visualization program. Scatter plots provide a visual representation of the data, while correlation coefficients indicate the strength of relationship between voting and library visits per capita.

Results – The findings reveal no significant relationship between public library use and the vote share of a political party in elections among a state’s population.

Conclusions – The political leaning of a state appears to have no correlation with the frequency of library usage among that state’s population.

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12 pages

Direct to Complete TOC For EBLIP, Vol. 15 No. 4 (2020) 

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