The report presents more than 245 pages of data and commentary on a broad range of academic library issues including: spending on books, ebooks, journals, databases and other content vehicles; hiring plans and trends in salaries and benefits; subject specific and overall academic library investment plans in content and trends in the capital budget; data on the use of laptops in the library, and the usefulness of various internet tools, among other issues.
Just a few of the study's many findings are that:
+ For more than 56% of the libraries in the sample, salaries and benefits in real terms declined in the past year.
+ The libraries in the sample reduced spending on content/materials by a mean of 1.75% in the 2009-10 academic year; the median figure was 0.
+ Libraries in the sample spent a mean of $5,801 on books and other intellectual property through Amazon online in the 2009-10 academic year.
+ 12.73% of the libraries sampled said that they had received support within the last year from Federal agencies.
+ An enormous gap is opening up between the public and private colleges over capital spending. 55.56% of the public colleges say that their capital budgets will decrease over the next three years while only 5.56% of private colleges say the same.
+ About a quarter of the libraries sampled have increased investment in information resources in business, finance and economics while about half that percentage has decreased such investment. Most have maintained it constant. More than 37% of private colleges have increased investment in this area while only 6.25% have decreased it.
You can also access an excerpt from the report with results (found in five tables) to the question:
In terms of subject areas, how fast has library investment in books, databases, journals and other materials grown over the past three years in Medical / Biology / Health Sciences?
The data in the report is based on a sample of more than 50 academic libraries in the United States and Canada
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