University of Texas at Austin: UT Libraries See a Decrease in Library Book Circulation Since the 1990s
From The Daily Texan:
Book checkouts from UT Libraries have declined about 59 percent since 1997, around the start of the internet. To meet the demand for online materials, UT Libraries regularly evaluates which physical materials to keep and which to put only online.
In 1997, the overall circulation of books in UT Libraries was 1,739,720. In the 2016–2017 school year, the circulation dropped by about one million to just over 700,000 books. Travis Willmann, communications officer for UT Libraries, said the decrease in books is a result of a technological shift brought on by the internet.
[Clip]
Krystal Wyatt-Baxter, head of assessment of UT Libraries, said she thinks UT Libraries struggles with checkouts more than public libraries because people tend to go to them for different reasons. “Lots of people go to their public library for leisure reading and that’s a different kind of activity than doing research (at UT libraries),” Wyatt-Baxter said.
Read the Complete Article
Filed under: Libraries, News, Public Libraries, Reports

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.