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    Libraries and museums

    Libraries and museums: Open doors, full shelves and a book in every child's hands.

    America's public libraries drew more than 800 million visits in 2023, nearly double 2021, and serve 155 million registered users.

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    Ryan K. Hertel · heyitskenton

    The problem

    What we're up against.

    • Doors that closed.

      From 2008 to 2019, 766 public library branches closed across the US.

    • Museums under strain.

      55% of museums are seeing fewer visitors than in 2019, and 34% have had government grants or contracts cancelled. Only 8% of those have fully replaced the money.

    • Repairs put off.

      21% of museums have put off repairs or improvements to their buildings.

    • Run on local budgets.

      Local governments spend over $12 billion a year to run 15,427 public libraries, so what a library can do depends on its town.

    What works

    Proven, and ready to grow.

    • Library buildings lift reading.

      Capital spending of about $200 or more per student on local libraries raises nearby children's reading scores, as more people use them.

    • Losing a library hurts.

      When libraries outside big cities closed, library use fell 32% to 42% and children's reading and math scores dropped.

    • Carnegie's libraries paid off for generations.

      Andrew Carnegie paid for 1,618 public libraries between 1890 and 1921, and children who grew up near them got more schooling. Towns that got one patented about 10% more than towns that applied but never built.

    • A museum visit builds thinking.

      In a trial where 3,811 students were chosen at random for an art museum visit, the tour raised their critical thinking about art, most of all for rural students.

    • Field trips all year.

      In another randomized trial, children who went on field trips through the year had fewer behavior problems, better attendance, higher test scores and better grades.

    • Books in the mail.

      In Colorado, a free book every month raised kindergartners' literacy scores by 0.13 standard deviations.

    What a family could fund

    Where the money goes furthest.

    • A book a month for every young child.

      Dolly Parton's Imagination Library mails a free book each month to children under five. Local partners pay about $2.60 a child a month for books and postage, and it already reaches about one in seven American children under five. The program covers its own overhead.

    • Build and renew libraries.

      The strongest evidence is for capital gifts: new and renovated buildings that bring more people through the doors.

    • Field trips, fully paid.

      The art museum in that trial now pays every cost of a school visit, from buses to lunch to substitute teachers, for more than 80,000 students a year.

    Honest limits

    What money can't promise.

    • Small effects, and mixed for math.

      The evidence that library spending lifts math scores is mixed, and closures didn't change graduation rates.

    • Books by mail: promising, not proven.

      Colorado's evaluation found literacy gains but no effect on a second readiness measure, and it wasn't a randomized trial.

    • Not every family signs up.

      The Imagination Library plans for only about 65% of eligible children enrolling.

    • Short follow-ups, small surveys.

      The museum trial could measure results only weeks later, since every comparison group was promised a tour, and the museum survey reflects the 511 directors who answered.

    Hard questions

    Asked and answered.

    1. You might ask

      Isn't everything online now?

      Ryan

      Not for everyone. 78% of American adults have broadband at home, so many don't, and library visits nearly doubled from 2021 to 2023.

    2. You might ask

      Why would a family pay for a public library?

      Ryan

      It has been done before, to lasting effect: Carnegie's libraries raised schooling and invention for generations, and building gifts today still move reading scores.

    3. You might ask

      Do books and trips help the children with least?

      Ryan

      The evidence leans that way: summer reading programs helped low-income children more than others, and the museum visit helped rural students most.

    In the slider

    See what your fortune could do here.

    Libraries and museums

    The slider prices this cause with these numbers:

    • About $31.20 mails a child a free book every month for a year through the Imagination Library.
    • The whole need is the American children under five who don't get the books yet: about 15.9 million of 18.5 million, since about one in seven already do.
    • Not every family signs up: the program plans for only about 65% of eligible children enrolling.
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    More of the Blueprint

    Keep reading.

    5 more chapters on the way

    Back to Keep 100

    Sources

    Every number in this chapter, and where it came from.

    1. Source 1: Increased Public Library Usage Shown by IMLS Survey Data (opens in a new tab)

      Institute of Museum and Library Services, 2 September 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.

      The federal agency's own survey of public libraries.

    2. Source 2: Unequal Access: How Public Library Closures Affect Educational Performance (Hanzl and Gilpin) (opens in a new tab)

      EdWorkingPapers, Annenberg Institute at Brown University, February 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.

      A working paper, not yet peer reviewed.

    3. Source 3: National Survey Reveals Alarming Downturn: Museums Face Worst Financial Outlook Since Pandemic (opens in a new tab)

      American Alliance of Museums, 11 November 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.

      A survey by the museums' own association, of the directors who answered.

    4. Source 4: The Returns to Public Library Investment (Gilpin, Karger and Nencka) (opens in a new tab)

      American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 1 May 2024. Checked 16 October 2026.

    5. Source 5: Essays on the Measurement of Income in Economic Analysis (Karger) (opens in a new tab)

      University of Chicago, June 2021. Checked 16 October 2026.

      A dissertation; its chapter on Carnegie libraries links the grants to census records.

    6. Source 6: Knowledge Access: The Effects of Carnegie Libraries on Innovation (Berkes and Nencka) (opens in a new tab)

      Review of Economics and Statistics, 17 July 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

    7. Source 7: Learning to Think Critically: A Visual Art Experiment (Bowen, Greene and Kisida) (opens in a new tab)

      Educational Researcher, January 2014. Checked 16 October 2026.

    8. Source 8: The Educational Value of Field Trips (Greene, Kisida and Bowen) (opens in a new tab)

      Education Next, 16 September 2013. Checked 16 October 2026.

      The researchers' own account of their trial at an art museum in Arkansas.

    9. Source 9: An Experimental Evaluation of Culturally Enriching Field Trips (Erickson, Watson and Greene) (opens in a new tab)

      Journal of Human Resources, 2024. Checked 16 October 2026.

    10. Source 10: Imagination Library of Colorado: Effects on Kindergarten Readiness and Skills (opens in a new tab)

      Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab, June 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.

      An evaluation the state required, comparing matched children, not a randomized trial.

    11. Source 11: Dolly Parton's book program reaches 1 in 7 U.S. kids under 5. How much longer? (Poole) (opens in a new tab)

      Fortune (from The Conversation), 3 October 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

    12. Source 12: Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, United States (handout and cost estimator) (opens in a new tab)

      Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. Checked 16 October 2026.

      The program's own materials, filed with a Utah public meeting.

    13. Source 13: School Visits (opens in a new tab)

      Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Checked 16 October 2026.

      The museum's own figures. It's the museum where the field trip trial took place.

    14. Source 14: The Returns to Public Library Investment (working version) (opens in a new tab)

      Montana State University, May 2023. Checked 16 October 2026.

      The authors' earlier version of the journal article.

    15. Source 15: Internet, Broadband Fact Sheet (opens in a new tab)

      Pew Research Center, 20 November 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.

    16. Source 16: The Effects of Summer Reading on Low-Income Children's Literacy Achievement From Kindergarten to Grade 8 (Kim and Quinn) (opens in a new tab)

      Review of Educational Research, September 2013. Checked 16 October 2026.

    17. Source 17: Imagination Library (opens in a new tab)

      Cortland Free Library. Checked 16 October 2026.

      A local partner of the program, in New York.

    18. Source 18: National population by single year of age and sex, July 1, 2025 (Vintage 2025) (opens in a new tab)

      US Census Bureau. Checked 16 October 2026.

      A data file. The count of children under five adds its rows for ages zero to four, both sexes, as of July 1, 2025.