This study presents data on the spending plans of 50 academic libraries; survey participants discuss spending plans for a myriad of purposes and resources including but not limited to personnel, print books, eBooks, databases, av resources and other content vehicles, streaming media, bundled serials packages, and more. The study also looks at spending plans for conferences and travel reimbursement, open access publishing fees, digitization initiatives, library maintenance, technology and other purposes. In addition to looking at spending plans for the upcoming year, the report also gives data on the extent to which libraries spent more, less, or the exact amounts allocated in their 2024-25 budgets,
Just a few of this 83-page report’s many findings are that:
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62% of libraries sampled spent their allocated budget amounts in the 2024-25 academic year, without upward or downward adjustments.
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48% of survey participants plan to increase spending on personnel in the upcoming budget year.
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70% of community college librarians in the sample plan to increase spending on streamed media.
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10% of libraries sampled planned to decrease spending on eBooks in the next year.
Data in the report is reported in the aggregate for the entire sample and broke out by many institutional criteria such as enrollment size, tuition level, Carnegie class and other variables.