Spending on E-Books Booms: Highlights from ACRL’s 2011 Academic Library Trends and Statistics Report

The full text report was released today by ACRL.  The three volume set is available for $550 in the ALA Online Store.
Here are a few highlights from the report that ALA shared in a news release.

The 2011 data shows that while the percentage of library expenditures for collection materials increased slightly over 2010, the amount spent on e-books increased dramatically.
Baccalaureate schools increased their spending by an average of 109.5 percent; associate degree-granting institutions increased spending by an average of 109.2 percent; comprehensive degree-granting institutions spent 102.7 percent more on average; and doctoral degree-granting institutions spent 78.9 percent more for e-books in 2011.
The percentage of the collection materials budget spent on serials decreased slightly for all types of institutions except baccalaureate schools where it remained unchanged from 2010. On average, doctoral degree-granting institutions spent 66.12 percent of their materials budgets for serials in 2011; comprehensive schools spent an average of 57.62 percent; baccalaureate schools spent an average 52.56 percent and associate degree-granting institutions spent an average of 33.87 percent.
Salary and wages expenditures as a percentage of total library expenditures increased slightly for doctoral and comprehensive institutions (by 0.94 percent and 0.98 percent, respectively), and slightly decreased for associate- institutions and baccalaureate schools (by 1.85 percent and 0.64 percent, respectively).
Salaries and wages constituted 74.43 percent of total library expenditures for associate degree-granting institutions, 59.51 percent for baccalaureate 58.18 percent for comprehensive schools and 45.57 percent for doctoral/research institutions.
In the past year 12.8 percent of academic libraries surveyed lost square footage, 6.2 percent gained space and 76.7 percent experienced no change.  In the next five years, 15.9 percent of academic libraries surveyed expect to lose space, 20.4 percent expect to gain space and 58.4 percent anticipate no change.

Direct to Full Text Press Release

Filed under: Academic Libraries, Associations and Organizations, Data Files, Funding, Libraries, News