Results from Two OCLC Member Surveys About U.S. Academic and Community College Libraries Now Online

Two new reports with results from surveys of librarians are now available. Both are loaded with statistics and charts.

• U.S. Academic Libraries: A Snapshot of Priorities & Perspectives (4 pages; PDF)

• U.S. Community College Libraries: A Snapshot of Priorities & Perspectives (4 pages; PDF)

Key Findings (via OCLC):

• Most academic and community college library staff:

• Consider delivering licensed e-collections and e-books to be their top priority and current initiative
• Believe their current library location structure will be the same in five years
• Rely mostly on listservs and e-mail to stay current—a few use social media

• Community college library staff are less likely than other academic library and public library staff to expect that a national digital library will exist in the next five years

• Community college libraries are distinctively putting more focus on outreach and library instruction and their back-end office technology compared to other academic libraries.As we saw in the public libraries report*, it’s worth noting that electronic discussion lists and email are what most professionals use to stay current. We find that both interesting and somewhat surprising.

*OCLC released a report looking at public libraries on March 21st.