For the last decade or more, circulation numbers of physical materials have declined in academic libraries across the United States. In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic drastically altered society and daily life, not to mention library functions. In particular, fears of contagion via physical surfaces and transmission by contact led many…

In summer 2008, a small group of Santa Clara University librarians were charged with exploring ways of making online library research guides more user friendly and interactive. In order to know how to enhance our guides, we first asked the question, "What makes a research guide useful?" What follows is a detailed process of discovery.…

Although cited reference studies are common in the library and information science literature, they are rarely performed in nonacademic institutions or in the atmospheric and oceanic sciences. In this paper, we analyze more than 400,000 cited references made by authors affiliated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration between…

In answering the question "What is the next trend in usage statistics in libraries?" an eclectic group of respondents has presented an assortment of possibilities, suggestions, complaints and, of course, questions of their own. Undoubtedly, usage statistics collection, interpretation, and application are areas of growth and increasing complexity…

Usage statistics are an important metric for making decisions on serials. Although the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Libraries have been collecting usage statistics, the statistics had not frequently been used to make decisions and had not been included in collection development policy. After undergoing a collection assessment, the…

Public libraries deliver many benefits to their patrons, but understanding these benefits in terms of dollars-and-cents is difficult. In an effort to quantify the return on investment to taxpayers for monies invested in public libraries, the Library Research Service (LRS) initiated the study, "Public Libraries -- A Wise Investment: A Return…

In previous editions of the CAUT Almanac, data for provincial postsecondary education expenditures, total expenditures and university and college revenues and expenditures was reported from Statistics Canada's Financial Management System (FMS), which Statistics Canada last published for the 2008-2009 fiscal year. Statistics Canada will be adopting…

Duane Webster oversaw the Association of Research Libraries' (ARL) Statistics and Measurement Program as it evolved into the Statistics and Assessment Program. During his 20-year tenure as ARL's executive director, Duane was instrumental in the creation of ARL's Web-based Interactive Statistics and played a leadership role in the development of a…

From a fledgling technology with no proven business models, electronic books (e-books) have grown in importance usurping traditional formats as an acquisitions budget line in many academic library contexts. Business models include purchase, subscription, and pay per use. In academic and research libraries, web based e-book delivery is the dominant…

This report presents statistics on how Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member libraries spend money on electronic resources. This report indicates that 109 ARL libraries purchased 32,329,187 electronic books. In 2007-2008, there was a median of 28,319 acquisitions of electronic books by ARL libraries (this includes one institution that…

This report presents statistics on how Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member libraries spend money on electronic resources. This report indicates that 108 ARL libraries purchased 25,006,758 electronic books. In 2006-2007, there was an ARL median of 243,725 acquisitions of electronic books (this includes one institution that purchased…

Western Illinois University Libraries has cut online serials subscriptions in the past 2 years. The librarians were guided by the statistics for downloads provided by the publishers of the journals. However, questions were raised by both professors and librarians regarding the exact meaning of the statistics. This caused the electronic resources…

This submission presents sixteen issues of Fast Facts from the Library Research Service covering topics regarding academic, public, school and special libraries in Colorado, the Mountain West and Southwest Regions. The following are Fast Facts titles from 2006 (1) Colorado Public Library Performance Rankings (2004 Data); (2) How Librarians Help…

This issue of "Research Library Issues" includes the following articles: (1) The University's Role in the Dissemination of Research and Scholarship--A Call to Action; (2) ARL Statement to Scholarly Publishers on the Global Economic Crisis (Karla Hahn); (3) Reinventing Science Librarianship: Themes from the ARL-CNI Forum (Elisabeth Jones); and (4)…

"ARL Statistics 2007-2008" is the latest in a series of annual publications that describe collections, staffing, expenditures, and service activities for the 123 members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). Of these, 113 are university libraries; the remaining 10 are public, governmental, and nonprofit research libraries. Data reported…