Amid the continual evolution in the ways most people acquire and consume media, the format and role of libraries in a community is fluctuating. More books can be borrowed digitally, and we've moved from tapes to DVDs. The microfiche, formerly the average person's key resource for research, is essentially a thing of the past -- we Google it instead. People don't need libraries in the same way as we used to. Nevertheless, the crucial role they play in a thriving city isn't diminishing, but transforming.
People use computers for research and completing forms, but for many people, libraries represent their only access to the internet. Libraries are a safe place for young people to go after school if they have nowhere else to go, and a common place for indoor activities and homework, which they have equal access to regardless of their home situation or economic status. Libraries are a reliable place to attend seminars, to become fluent in English, or to get some work done without having to purchase a coffee. Being able to acquire information or fill out a job application, or even just be safe indoors for a couple hours, can be the small differences that prevent individuals from being trapped in a hard place by their inability to afford services that could help improve their situation. A library is an oasis in civilization.
So being in the vicinity of a library can provide an individual with a variety of comforts and advantages. A city whose public library system is vital and accessible, succeeds in attending to its citizens in an important way. Let's explore how we can use cartography to evaluate whether a city's library system is available enough for the people who need it most.
The following is a map displaying the libraries in the Jacksonville area, including the Jacksonville Public Library system as well as the other major libraries in the area, with special attention to approximately what parts of the city can be considered to be in the vicinity of a library. After looking into what this map can tell us, we'll consider the same information through additional filters to evaluate whether there is sufficient availability of libraries throughout the city. Click to enlarge.
The Jacksonville Public Library System features a total of 21 branch and regional libraries serving the most populous city in Florida (with a population of around 900,000 people), and the largest city landwise in the United States. This map represents each library location with a dot, each with its region of rapid accessibility radiating out of it in concentric circles. State and County lines provide a sense of Duval County's spatial relationship with surrounding regions.
Consider the map legend. Each library location is shown as a dot in a color corresponding to its category: Jacksonville Public Libraries in purple, those associated with higher education institutions in dark orange, and those belonging to the adjacent Counties in blue. Each has a small, deeply colored circle around it indicating the area within a 10-minute walk from the library (about 1km or 0.6 miles). Outside of these are larger, more transparent circles indicating a 5-minute drive at 48.2 kmh / 30mph (about 4km or 2.5 miles).
The colors overlap to form consolidated shapes in places that are near more than one library. Observing these areas and their colors gives an idea of the type and ease of library access in a given area. We can also see the the campuses of higher education institutions in bright yellow, which reacts to the proximity circles. The very large Main Library, one of the most important pieces of architecture in the city, is designated by an extra purple ring around its 10-minute circle.
The entirety of Duval County is shown with a pink tone, and the water bodies with a subdued turquoise color. Note the places where the walk and drive circles overlap with bodies of water. This is a 'dead space' in which the proximity of a library effectively doesn't matter, because we can consider it uncommon enough for a person to drive a boat to get to a library, or to swim there. As an alternative, we see the major roadways in grey providing a sense of the density of the transportation network relative to the proximity of libraries.
By looking at this map, we get a picture of the city through a filter that asks where the libraries are, what libraries there are, and about how long it takes to get to one, depending on where you are.
Let's take it a step further. Remembering that a library represents many people's only access to the internet, what happens when we take this information about library proximity, and compare it to where the people who lack internet are more likely to live? Click to enlarge.
This map compares the places encompassed by the 5-minute drive circles of the previous map, with the percentage of households with no access to the internet, shown by census tract boundaries according to 5-year data from the American Community Survey collected from 2015 to 2020. It's zoomed in to focus on the places where the data indicates the greatest need.
As you can see reflected in the legend, the public and university libraries inside Duval are still shown with colored dots, and the approximate area within a 5-minute drive of each is outlined with a dashed line forming a cloud shape where the libraries are more densely distributed.
Shown in a gold gradient is the percentage of households that don't have access to the internet, by census tract boundary. In Jacksonville, these values don't exceed 50% at the worst, so the places where 40 - 50% of households don't have access to the internet are shown with the darkest color. As you can see, all of these places are encompassed by the region that's within five minute's drive from a library. Notice that these places are also quite close to the city's very large Main Library downtown, shown by a pink dot. Also worth noting, almost every area where 20% or more of households lack internet access, is also within this region, and all of them are still within quite a short drive to a library. For a person with a car, driving a little further than 5 minutes won't normally be prohibitive, it just makes it harder to go as often. So judging by this data, there do not appear to be any areas at risk with regard to internet access, where there is not at least one library reasonably accessible by car.
Based on this map, we can see that although we may not be able to ensure that every person in Jacksonville is within a short drive to a library to use a computer, nevertheless there does not appear to be any specific area of major concern. So far, we can conclude that most households in Jacksonville shouldn't have much trouble getting to a library, as long as they have a car.
But what if you don't have a vehicle, and you still need to get to a library regularly in order to access the public services and advantages we discussed earlier? To reiterate, Jacksonville is the largest city by area in the US, and the most populous in Florida. Is its public library system sufficiently available to people who don't have the luxury of a vehicle at their disposal? The map below explores this question. Click to enlarge.
Here we have returned to the 10-minute walk circles we saw earlier in the holistic Jacksonville map. The data again is 5-year data from the American Community Survey collected from 2015 to 2020. What's immediately clear from this map is that spatially, the vast majority of the urban area is not encompassed within 10 minutes' walk of a library. But we want to compare the resource to the need. Do most people who particularly need there to be a library within walking distance, have one?
This map's legend is pretty similar to that of the previous one. But this time, we've dispensed of the 5-minute drive circles, which don't matter much to someone without access to a car. In a purple gradient we can see the percentage of households in each census tract, that do not have access to a vehicle. This is broken down into increments of 10%, until the percentage breaks 50%. The reason for this is that there is only one tract in that division.
Note the bright gold line representing the approximate boundary of urban areas in Jacksonville. This line acts as a substitute for mapping out the entirety of the Jacksonville bus system, on which households without a car are likely to rely heavily. Since the bus system efficiently reaches the majority of the urban area, we can use this gold line rather than cluttering the rest of the data by drawing each and every bus route (which would take a long time to do at this scale anyway!).
As we explore the data, we can understand that a person without a vehicle who is too far to walk, may well be able to get to a library by bus. However, a bus might not be the best option for a person who has mobility challenges, who cannot afford bus fare, or who has to avoid public places for health reasons; it also takes longer to travel by bus than by car.
Consider the areas in the center of the map that are shown in the darkest tones of purple, in the latter half of the gradient bar, where 30% or more of households don't have access to a vehicle. Seven census tracts fall into one of these three divisions. In the darkest tract, where 50% or more of households are without a vehicle, we have good news: the entirety of the area is within walking distance to the largest and most cutting-edge library in the city. Similar for the area a little north of it, where the data is at 40 - 50%. This tract is almost completely encompassed in walking distance to the Brentwood Branch Library.
However, things are a little trickier in the 20 - 40% range. In the northern half of central Jacksonville, a large portion of the areas where 30 - 40% of households have no vehicle are not within 10 minutes' walk. Where 20 - 30% lack a vehicle, a very small portion is close enough to walk. In the southern part of Jacksonville there's one tract in this division set apart from all the others, where you'd have to walk closer to 20 or 30 minutes to get to one of the closest libraries.
We can consider the places that are at 0 - 20 % as being at minimal risk. It's important that people in areas where being without a car is more common have a safe and reliable way to get to a library -- to say nothing of other kinds of services they need to be able to walk to, but that's a map for another day. It can be dangerous as well as time consuming to walk for 20 or 30 minutes to get somewhere. Fortunately Jacksonville's network of bus routes is pretty extensive, and that can help supplement this need.
From this map we can see that the places where households are most likely to be without a car, are pretty well situated with regard to walkability to a library. There are some gaps where the need is more moderate. So if the Jacksonville Public Library were to open a 22nd location, our recommendation would be to open it in one of the tracts in that mid-range of vehicle inaccessibility, especially in one where internet access is also relatively limited. Namely, Lackawanna / Mixon Town, lower Moncrief, and Woodland Acres toward Arlington would all be good places for a new potential library.
But based on all the data discussed today, we can conclude that Jacksonville is overall successful in the way its libraries are distributed, whether you have a car or not, especially considering how much ground there is to cover! The Jacksonville Public Libraries' slogan is "Start Here, Go Anywhere." In our opinion, they're doing a good job living up to their slogan, and making it possible for as many people as possible to get to a library and go anywhere from there.
Viewing a city as large and complex as Jacksonville through the lens of a public service that branches throughout, is one way of considering the health of the city. In a future map we'll choose another lens and seek to understand the distribution of hospitals and healthcare services in the region, compared to demographic data, and consider Jacksonville's health in a more literal way.
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