The study closely compares the policies of 23 research libraries predominantly from the USA, but also from Canada, Germany and the UK. The intensive 230+ page report gives detailed comparisons and data about how these libraries are handling an array of issues and developments, including but not limited to: trends in staffing and use of personnel, operating budget, capital budgets, digitization strategies, use of open access, 3D printing, grants management, technology investment, employee productivity growth, database licensing and much more. Data is broken out separately by library staff size, region of the world and for corporate/legal libraries, university libraries and for other non-profit/government libraries.
Just a few of the report’s many findings are that:
· More than half (54.55 percent) of all survey participants report that librarian salaries and benefits at their respective institutions have “more or less declined in real terms” over the past year.
· For nearly half (45.45 percent) of all survey participants, the library’s capital budget has not changed over the past three years. Only four participants report that it has increased “somewhat,” while the remaining eight libraries reported a decrease in the capital budget over this time.
· 40.91 percent of all survey participants say spending on acquisitions of new IT equipment stock has stayed the same over the last three years.
· 54.55 percent of university libraries are open to the prospect of digitizing the out-of-copyright books from their special collections.
· 27.27 percent of libraries in the sample reported an increase in personnel in the Public Relations & Marketing department.
· The libraries in the sample spent a mean of $1.71 million on all database licensing.
· 39.23 percent of the subscription budgets at university libraries consist of consortia purchases, compared to a mean of 13.33 percent for the government/non-profit libraries in the sample and a mean of just 1.25 percent for the corporate/legal libraries.