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Press Release from Primary Research Group, Inc.
Spending on electronic books by academic libraries has reached a cumulative
total of 11% of their spending on print books, and will reach 20% by 2011,
according to The Survey of Academic Libraries, (ISBN 157440-080-0),
a benchmarking report published by Primary Research Group Inc.
Some of the reports finding are:
Subscriptions obtained through consortiums account for a mean of 67% and a median of 75% of the database subscriptions of academic libraries,
About 34.9% of the libraries in the sample have lap top lending programs to students. Of those that do not currently have such a program,
only 3.85% say that they have firm plans to start one within the
next two years, but close to 20% say that they might possibly start such a program within this time frame.
More than 71% of the libraries in the sample said that their student education work load had increased over the past two years, while less than 5% said that this work load had declined in this period.
The librarians in the sample spent a mean of 8.89% of their total staff time in responding to queries from patrons located outside the library about use of the librarys databases.
Most libraries pay their subscription agents in a lump sum at the beginning of the year, but a small minority, a bit less than 13%, pay their agents in increments throughout the year.
The libraries in the sample tried a mean of 5.68 databases on a free trial basis in the past year and subsequently acquired paid access to a mean of 2.08 of these databases.
A mean of about 42.4% of the total library staff in the sample had MLS degrees, an average of 7.76 librarians with MLS degrees per survey participant.
The mean annual cost of compensation for the libraries in the sample was $669,911, a modest 2.1% increase over the 2005 figure of $655,758.
A shade more than 34% of the libraries in the sample felt that in the past year compensation for librarians on staff had declined in real terms.
The libraries in the sample spent a mean of only $2,863 for degrees or continuing education for library staff, a surprising finding, given all the publicity
given to the potential shortage of librarians.
The libraries in the sample spent a mean of about 159.3 hours per year of staff time addressing problems related to the interruption of database access,
or about 4 solid weeks of full time work.
Mean spending on electronic databases for content was approximately $164,732 in 2006, up significantly from $144,447 in 2005, a one year increase of 14%.
This figure covers all electronic databases,
including those on tape and CD-ROM, as well as web or other online delivered databases.
The libraries in the sample spent a mean of only 59.55 hours in staff time annually in preparing grants for the library; the median was only 22.5 hours.
The mean number of grants applied for in the past year was only 1.5.
About 27% of the libraries in the sample had special endowments targeted at book collections, while only 9.62% had special endowments targeted at electronic assets.
More than 40% of the libraries in the sample have a center or specific set of workstations earmarked for computer or information literacy of some kind.
Spending on traditional books by the libraries in the sample increased by 6.6% in 2006, rising from a mean of $76,045 to $81,079.
Subscriptions obtained through consortiums account for a mean of 67% and a median of 75% of the database subscriptions of academic libraries
The compete study has more than 500 tables of data exploring trends in staffing, management practices, and materials spending; pursuit of grants and
endowments, use of electronic and print resources, design of digital depositories,
development of library workstations and technology centers, use of consortiums, relations with subscription agents, and other facets of academic librarianship.
Data is broken out by size and type of library to allow for easier benchmarking.
Recognized publications may call for review copies. To place an order, contact James Moses at 212-736-2316, fax your order to 212-412-9097, email your order
to Primarydat@mindspring.com, or visit our website at WWW.Primaryresearch.com.
The Survey of Academic Libraries
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