The State Library Agencies (STLA) Survey is conducted annually and is the product of a cooperative effort between the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA), the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS), and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). This fourth Survey in the series provides state and federal policymakers, researchers, and other interested users with descriptive information about state library agencies in the 50 states and the District of Columbia for fiscal year (FY) 1997. The Survey collects data on 506 items, including governance, public service hours, service outlets, collections, library service and development transactions, support of electronic information networks, allied operations, staff, income and expenditures. Data are also collected on STLA services to public, academic, school and special libraries, and to library systems. The data items and definitions are provided in the survey facsimile at the end of the data base documentation. Data items on films, special collections, and combined libraries collected in previous years were deleted from the FY97 survey, based on their declining significance or data quality, as determined by the STLA Steering Committee. Data on staff by gender and race/ethnicity were collected by full-time/part-time status, rather than in full-time equivalents (FTEs), due to the difficulty in providing the FTE data in previous years. (AEF)