The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in February 1999 released the data file for Public Libraries Survey, Fiscal Year 1996. Conducted annually by the NCES through the Federal-State Cooperative System (FSCS) for Public Library Data, the Public Libraries Survey (PLS) collects data on staff, materials, circulation, reference transactions, library visits, public service hours, operating income and expenditures, and electronic technology information. The 1996 PLS includes data from 8,946 public libraries in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The data file is available for downloading in .zip format (2,525KB). The compressed .zip file contains five database files in Access format generated from the PLS: Public Library Data File; Public Library State Summary/ State Characteristics File; Public Library Outlet File, FY 1996; Administrative Entities Only/ State Library File, FY1996; and State Library Outlet File, FY 1996. Database documentation is available in .pdf format.