Justin Grimes, of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, has created a couple of interactive maps that detail the saturation of libraries and museums across the United States:
Peruse the Map of Public Libraries for a few minutes, and zoom in to your local area to note the prevalence of libraries. It uses data from 2010, so it may be missing libraries that have opened since then (like my 2-year-old local branch).
Justin also created a Map of Museums. Do the same type of search, and see what exists in your area.
The Atlantic magazine notes that the number of libraries in the US (17,000) is greater than either McDonald’s (14,000) or Starbucks (11,000). Not a bad statistic.
Thanks to Rudy Leon for sharing this information!
