SCONUL Annual Library Statistics 2009-2010
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• The Society of College, National and University Libraries SCONUL Annual Library Statistics 2009-2010 SCONUL 2011 These statistics have been prepared for SCONUL by LISU at Loughborough University. The detailed work has been undertaken by Sonya White. © SCONUL, Society of College, National & University Libraries, 2011 Available from: SCONUL 94 Euston Street London NW1 2HA Tel: 020 7387 0317 Fax: 020 7383 3197 E-mail: [email protected] ISSN: 1352-1020 These statistics are subject to copyright and database right SCONUL holds the copyright in the text accompanying these statistics. The statistics themselves constitute a database for the purposes of the Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997 (Statutory Instrument 1997:3032), and SCONUL holds both the copyright in the database as an original work, and the database right in the statistics. Users should note that they will infringe SCONUL's database right if, without SCONUL's permission, they extract or re-utilise all or a substantial part of the contents of this publication. Repeated and systematic extraction or re-utilisation of insubstantial parts may infringe database right too. SCONUL hereby waives its rights for any use of this publication by, and for the private purposes of, any institution that has contributed statistics included within it. SCONUL waives its rights for any use of these statistics for non-commercial research purposes, except: re-publication, in any form, and the publication, in any form, of derived statistics. 'Non-commercial research' for this purpose means research conducted or commissioned by an entity whose activities are not conducted for profit. A commercial entity may take advantage of this waiver provided that the specific research it is conducting has been commissioned by an entity whose activities are not conducted for profit, and provided that the waiver strictly applies only for the purposes of and for the duration of the research thus commissioned. For uses not specified in the waivers noted immediately above, permission should be sought from the Executive Director of SCONUL, 94 Euston Street, London NW1 2HA, England. Contents Introduction to SCONUL 1 Commentary and notes on the statistics 2 Summary of financial details 8 Main data tables (1 August 2009 - 31 July 2010) 12 Derived statistics 68 List of universities and notes to individual returns 104 Appendix A: Definitions of derived statistics 127 Appendix B: Questionnaire and explanatory notes 132 Index 145 SCONUL Annual Library Statistics 2009-10 i Introduction to SCONUL SCONUL (the Society of College, National and University Libraries) promotes excellence in library services in higher education and national libraries across the UK and Ireland. Statistical work has long been part of our approach to measuring quality of service, and our data also provide firm information for strategic planners. SCONUL is a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity, governed by its members (most of the higher education institutions and all the national libraries in the UK and Ireland). Between annual meetings its work is directed by an elected Executive Board. Developing and promoting policies Through its Executive Board and its working groups, SCONUL discusses, develops, and recommends policies for the efficient operation of the higher education and national libraries of the member countries. We aim for cooperation between libraries, in order to avoid duplication of effort as librarians seek solutions in different circumstances to similar problems. Our groups also disseminate good practice and shared knowledge. Meetings and conferences SCONUL organises two conferences for all its members every year, and holds (often in collaboration with others) seminars and briefing sessions for its member librarians and related professionals. Informing and advising, nationally and internationally SCONUL receives a constant stream of requests for information and advice by official and unofficial bodies whose work has an impact on library and information services. Our head librarians, and our Chair and Executive Director, participate and assist in consultative bodies in the UK and Ireland, and both formally and informally in mainland Europe. We exchange information, and sometimes visits, with our counterparts further afield, particularly in Australia, Canada and the USA. An important role for SCONUL is to press on behalf of our members for appropriate legislation affecting libraries. Electronic delivery has increased the potential value of information, with the result that every year sees new laws having an impact on information provision. SCONUL and statistics SCONUL has been collecting and publishing statistics from university libraries for a dozen years or more, with the aim of providing sound information on which policy decisions can be based. Since 1995 the processing of the data has been carried out by LISU at Loughborough University, which maintains a large backfile from which trends can be inferred. Many library directors in UK universities and colleges of higher education regularly use the statistics to compare their service with the provision of service in other institutions. Sometimes the comparison is used to press the case for more funds; sometimes to plan improvements to services. Details from the statistical database are regularly extracted by LISU to provide close comparative data for similar institutions, for benchmarking purposes, and LISU bases its own published summaries of UK library data partly on SCONUL's Annual Statistics. The figures are used widely by strategic planners in education and in publishing. They are especially effective when SCONUL itself is arguing the case for a national or international policy - nothing supports an argument so convincingly as a demonstrable fact or clear trend. SCONUL's statistics are hard work to produce, and they are worked hard once they are published. SCONUL Annual Library Statistics 2009-10 1 Commentary and notes on the statistics Key results This is the tenth year for which these statistics cover almost the whole UK higher education library sector. Membership of SCONUL is open to all higher education institutions, and non-members are also invited to complete the return. A total of 148 returns were completed by UK HEIs this year (out of a possible 166). This is an increase on the 143 received in 2008-09; representing 89% of eligible institutions, and covers approximately 96% of FTE students in the UK. Together, these institutions operated almost 640 libraries (with almost 200 separate stores also reported), employed over 9,500 library staff, and spent almost £676 million on their libraries in 2009-10. In addition, three SCONUL members from the Republic of Ireland (out of nine overall) submitted a return in 2009-10; their data are shown following the UK figures. The average institution stocked 61 print Fig 1: Print Books per FTE student books per FTE student, a decrease on the 60 HEC averages of 65 last year and 67 in 2007-08, although this varied widely 50 New (Fig 1). An additional 8.7 electronic books 40 Old were available in 2009-10 per FTE 30 RLUK student, on average. Libraries purchased an average of 134 current serial titles per Number 20 100 FTE students, although, because of a 10 change in the definitions, described below, this figure is not directly 0 comparable with those from previous <25 25-50 50-75 75-100 100-150 >150 Books per FTE student years. £137 was spent on information provision per FTE student, a slight Note: See page 3 for an explanation of the groups used for analysis. increase on 2008-09. Fig 2 shows how this was distributed amongst the various print and electronic resources purchased. Overall, libraries once again accounted for 2.7% of institutional expenditure in 2009-10. Average library expenditure per FTE student (£375) was 2% lower than last year. Library expenditure comprised 49% staff, 37% information provision, with electronic resources accounting for 24% overall of total library expenditure (Fig 2). Fig 2: Proportions of total expenditure (UK) Other operational 10% Equipment 5% elec perls 12% joint perls 6% Info. provision 36% print perls 5% Other elec. 4% Other 1% e‐books 1% Staff Books 49% 7% SCONUL Annual Library Statistics 2009-10 2 Commentary The number of loans per FTE student stabilised somewhat at 58; whilst the number of loans per active borrower continues to fall – from 51 last year to 50 this year. On average, 84 books were taken out of the library for every 100 visits, compared to 85 last year and 88 in 2007-08. Inter-library lending accounted for 0.4% of all loans with 85% of requested items being supplied, on average. Based on data from the subset of respondents able to supply figures, an average of 85 journal articles were downloaded per FTE user, at an average cost of 56p per download – compared to 75 downloads per FTE user at a cost of 66p per download last year. On average, the number of students for every available study space has increased slightly to 10.2, with 38% of study places occupied at any given time. Each FTE user visited the library an average of 53 times over the course of the year, slightly down on last year (54). On average, there was one member of library staff for every 192 FTE students, a 7% increase on 2008-09. Each member of staff answered an average of 30 enquiries per week. Professional staff spent an average of 28 hours per year providing reader instruction, and each FTE user attended for approximately 42 minutes – a slight decrease on the 43 minutes reported last year. For the first time this year data were collected relating to institutional repositories, and while the data are still relatively incomplete, a total of 102 respondents reported almost 353,000 full-text items in their institutional repositories, whilst 101 respondents reported almost 475,000 items included in their institutional repositories as bibliographic records only.