The report shows libraries shifting content spending to technology spending—digitizing collections, acquiring native digital content, and developing digital storage and retrieval systems. As the Google Books Library Project continues, and new vendors scan and package content, further disruptions are afoot.
That’s just one of several trends revealed in the Outsell report, which sizes and segments the content controlled by the global library market. The analysis covers government, public, academic, school and corporate libraries—physical as well as digital. Overall, it projects a reduction in spending from $24.8 billion last year to $24.4 billion in 2011, driven by the economic slowdown.
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The report also references another Outsell study of business information users, showing a surge in respondents who prefer to start research through their organizations’ intranets—up from 5 percent in 2001, to 25 percent in 2008—rather than through the open Web.
“This profound shift in searching behavior means digital libraries and repositories will increasingly become go-to contacts for relevant, high-quality, and easily accessible business information. Libraries will remain vital in driving and managing content to meet this user demand,” said Ned May, Director and Lead Analyst, Outsell, Inc., who led the research.
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