Primary Research Group has published Research Library International
Benchmarks (isbn 1-57440-101-3). The 200-page study is based on data
from 45 major research libraries from the USA, Canada, Australia,
Germany, the UK, Italy, Japan, Spain, Argentina, and other countries.
The report presents a broad range of data on current and planned
materials, salary, info technology and capital spending, spending
trends for e-books, journals, books and much more. Provides data on
trends in personnel deployment, discount margins from vendors,
relations with consortiums, information literacy efforts, workstation,
laptop and learning space development, use of scanners and digital
cameras, use of RFID technology, federated search and many other
pressing issues for major research libraries, university and otherwise.
Data is broken out separately for government, university and
corporate/legal libraries.
A few of the report’s findings, presented in more than 500 tables, are:
Nearly 37% of the libraries in the sample increased spending somewhat
on maintenance of IT equipment stock, while only 12.24% reduced such
spending. A shade more than half held such spending constant over the
past three years.
Mean spending on materials/content by the libraries in the sample was
approximately $4.25 million, with a median of $1.91 million. Mean
spending for the university libraries in the sample was $5.47 million.
The nominal increase in materials spending this year for the libraries
in the sample was 4.46%.
Spending on e-books by the libraries in the sample was a mean of
$150,086 in 2007 with a range of “0” to $2 million. More than 60% of
the libraries in the sample plan to increase spending on e-books over
the next two years, while less than 7% plan to decrease e-book spending.
Only 13.46% of the libraries in the sample had received grant support
from a federal government in the past year. Data were similar for U.S.
and non-U.S. libraries.
53% of libraries in the sample said that they would be not be
digitizing much of their general collection of out-of-copyright books,
and nearly 35% said that they had no plans to extensively digitize any
of their collections.
More than 57% of the libraries in the sample have not altered the
number of positions in their Special Collections Divisions in the past
three years. About 22% have decreased the number of positions and 20%
have increased this number.
There was little change in the number of employees devoted to library
security but some increase in personnel in library facilities
management. University libraries were most likely to increase
employment in library facilities management. The largest libraries had
the greatest tendency to increase employment in this area, and nearly
40% of those in the sample had done so in the past three years, while
about 54% maintained personnel levels and only 7.7% decreased
employment in this area.
For 27.45% of the libraries in the sample, spending on salaries and
benefits had
declined in real terms over the past two years (from staff reductions,
pay reductions in
real terms or a combination of these factors).
Somewhat surprisingly, most libraries in the sample said that their
capital budgets had either decreased or remained the same over the past
three years. Only about 29% of the libraries in the sample said that
their capital budgets had increased in the past three years and only
5.88% said that their capital budgets had increased significantly.
Nearly 21% of the libraries in the sample have decreased their overall
number of subject specialists over the past three years, while about
11.5% have increased this number. Nearly 31% of the largest libraries
have decreased their total number of subject specialists.
Far more libraries in the sample plan to increase than decrease
spending on PCs and workstations, suggesting the hope that increases in
spending on laptops by libraries, and by their patrons, might lead to
lower investment levels in traditional workstation technology.
44% of large research libraries plan to increase spending on outside or
outsourced Web design, evaluation and consulting, but most smaller
research libraries plan to hold such spending constant.
More than half of the libraries in the sample spend less than 10% of
their staff time on information literacy issues. 19.5% spend from 10%
to 20% of their staff time on these issues, and 12.2% respectively
spend from 20% to 30% and 35% to 50% of
their staff time on these issues. Only 2.33% spend more than half of
their staff time on information literacy issues.
A mean of 21% of the articles obtained by the libraries in the sample
from other institutions come from the digital repositories of these
institutions rather than from traditional inter-library loan channels.
The average discount from list prices that the libraries in the sample
received from their book distributors for reference books was 11.9%
with a range of “0” to 30%. U.S. libraries received nearly 3 times the
discount of non-U.S. libraries, a mean of 15% to only 5.67% for
non-U.S. libraries.
For a table of contents and other further information, view our website
at www.PrimaryResearch.com.
Study Participants Include:
Loma Linda University, McMaster University, Australian Nuclear Science
and Technology Organization (ANSTO), University of Puerto
Rico-Mayaguez, Saint Paul University, University of New South Wales,
Charles Stuart University, Hay Group, University of Southern
California, University of New Mexico Libraries, Universidad de San
Andres, Biblioteca Max von Buch , Library of University of Seville,
Hunter College,
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, BP,Texas Woman's
University, University of North Florida, Thomas G. Carpenter Library,
University Libraries, University at Buffalo, The State University of
New York, Research Library Federal Reserve Bank, University of Rio
Grande, Mercer University/Jack Tarver Library , James J. Hill Reference
Library, MITRE Corporation, Click University, Xerox, Raytheon Company,
The Catholic University of America, University of Glasgow, Victoria
University, University of Wyoming Libraries, Dartmouth College,
WorkSafeBC, Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback, & Associates, Nalco
Company, City College of New York, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias
Sociales FLACSO Sede Académica Argentina, Biblioteca de los Recursos
Hídricos de la República Argentina, University of Bristol, Griffith
University, Lincoln University, University of Sussex, University of
Detroit Mercy, University of Wollongong Library, Miura Memorial
Library, Chubu University, KSU, Rutgers University, The University of
Akron, University of Idaho.
James Moses
Primary Research Group, Inc.
Tel. 212-736-2316
Fax 212-412-9097
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