The [190 page] report is based on data from 60 corporate and other business libraries with a mean number of approximately 21,000 employees per survey participant.
The report presents detailed data on corporate library spending on salaries, office space, online services, books, ebooks, journals, audio-video assets, directories and other information vehicles. It also looks at the changing role of the corporate librarian and their role in records management, digital asset management, market research and other non-traditional areas. In addition to per employee and overall spending data, the report gives hard data on the extent of use of various library tools and practices, such as the provision of tables of contents, or the outsourcing of research services. The report helps to answer the critical question: what are corporations currently doing with their libraries and what do they plan for them in the future?
A Few of the Findings:
+ For 43% of the libraries in the sample salary levels did not change from the year before.
+ More than 31% of libraries sampled said that their budgets would increase in 2011.
+ A mean of 13.12% of all the costs of the library were accounted for by charges back to patrons
+ Despite the general trend towards the elimination of print resources, they still account for more than half of the traditional law library materials budget. Only libraries in the largest institutions, those serving 300 or more lawyers, spent more of their library budget on electronic than print resources.
+ Amazon.com was used frequently or extensively by more than 28% of libraries sampled. About 7% used Facebook frequently, none used it extensively. 9.68% of law firm libraries used Facebook frequently.
+ In 2009 spending on print reporters was a mean of $35,744 and the range was extraordinary, from 0 to $500,000. Law firm libraries spent a mean of a little more than $15,300; the range was from 0 to more than $64,000.
+ Librarians in the sample report some success in re-negotiating contracts for online information services at lower prices than have prevailed in the past. Results and tactics vary considerably. Success seems greater for online than print resources.
+ A mean of 15% of librarians staff time was spent doing research designed to produce new business or clients for the organization.
+ Mean spending on content by the libraries in the sample was $6,277 per lawyer employed in the parent organization.
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