The 57-page study presents data from a survey of 96 North American academic library directors, deans and university librarians about their current practices and plans for the print book collection. The study looks at the relative intentions to build the print book vs. the eBook collection, pinpointing the types of college and individuals most likely to build up one or the other, both or neither. Also, the report gives detailed data on the percentage of purchases sourced from Amazon, YBP, and Coutts. The study also presents detailed data on the percentage of overall sales accounted by discretionary books sales, and the percentage accounted for by standing orders. In an open ended question, survey participants discuss how they expect their print book purchasing policies to change over the next few years. In addition, the report relates mean, median, minimum and maximum levels of spending for the institutions sampled, with data for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 academic years.
Just a few of the report’s many findings are that:
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23.96% of all respondents had shifted much of their book budget to eBooks and expected that trend to continue. Institutions based in the US West were the most likely to continue this shift.
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Across the entire sample, mean spending on print books in 2017-18 was $140,298.91, with a median of $25,000, a minimum of $0, and a maximum of $4,700,000.
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Private colleges were significantly more likely than public institutions to source their print books from Amazon.
Data in the report, including spending data, is broken out by many variables, including college type, enrollment and level of tuition, among other variables. Data is also broken out by some personal characteristic of the survey respondents, such as work title and age. The majority of survey respondents were library directors, and the remained, largely deans or university librarians.
Order this study and at the same time our recent companion study – The Survey of Academic Library Leadership: Plans for eBooks – and claim a 25% discount on the combined sales total. This deal is offered until June 1, 2019.