Highlights From ACRL’s “2018 Academic Library Trends and Statistics”

Note: The complete ACRL 2018 Academic Library Trends and Statistics was released today. It is a fee-based resource. A few data points from the report are found below.

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) announces the publication of ““2018 Academic Library Trends and Statistics.”

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The 2018 data show that library expenditures for collection materials averaged $5.3 million for doctoral degree-granting institutions; $684,000 for comprehensive degree-granting institutions; $498,000 for baccalaureate schools and $196,000 for associate-degree granting institutions. On average, doctoral degree granting institutions spent 77.2% of their materials budgets on ongoing commitments to subscriptions in 2017; comprehensive schools spent an average of 82.4%; baccalaureate schools spent an average 79.5% and associate degree granting institutions spent an average of 64.9%. On average, academic libraries spent 76% of their materials budget on ongoing subscriptions.

Expenditures for salaries and wages accounted for 55.6% of the total library expenditures on average. Salaries and wages constituted 72.5% of total library expenditures for associate-degree granting institutions, 51.6% for baccalaureates, 55.4% for comprehensive schools, and 43% for doctoral/research institutions.

Spending per FTE student averaged $81.27 for associate-degree granting institutions, $400 for baccalaureate schools, $262 for comprehensive universities, and $633 for doctoral/research institutions. Staffing at associate-degree granting institutions averaged 4.97 FTE librarians, 5.44 FTE librarians at baccalaureate schools, 7.82 FTE librarians at comprehensive universities, and 30.2 FTE librarians at doctoral/research institutions.

The 2018 survey includes data from 1,726 academic libraries in five major categories:

• Collections (including titles held, volumes, and electronic books)
• Expenditures (library materials, salaries and wages, etc.)
• Library services
• Staffing
• Library contributions to student success initiatives

Direct to Complete ACRL Announcement

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