2008 Academic Library Trends and Statistics from ACRL

Gary Price at ResourceShelf is pointing to this important data that was released recently:
“2008 Academic Library Trends and Statistics from ACRL
The full text is a fee-based report but some highlights are available.
From the Media Release:
The 2008 data shows that the median unit cost of monographs (per volume) increased significantly since 2007 for all types of academic libraries (34.2 percent for associate degree-granting institutions, 63.3 percent for baccalaureate institutions, 61.1 percent for comprehensive institutions and 96.8 percent for doctoral/research institutions), while salary and wages expenditures as a percentage of total library expenditures remained unchanged. Salaries and wages constituted 72.1 percent of total library expenditures for associate-degree granting institutions, 56.6 percent for baccalaureate 56.5 percent for comprehensive schools, and 46.5 percent for doctoral/research institutions.
Serial expenditures as a percentage of total library materials expenditures saw very little variation from 2007, increasing less than 1 percent for associate degree-granting institutions and doctoral/research institutions (0.2 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively) and less than 2 percent for comprehensive institutions (1.4 percent) and baccalaureate schools (1.6 percent). Unchanged from 2007 is the percentage of student assistant staff as a percentage of total staff, ranging from a low of 18.1 percent at associate degree-granting institutions to a high of 29.4 percent at baccalaureate institutions.
The data comes from 1,533 academic libraries.
You can also access free summary data for the following categories:
+ Collections
+ Expenditures
+ Electronic Materials Expenditures
+ Personnel and Public Services
+ Ph.D., Faculty, and Enrollment Statistics
+ Selected Variable
Stats are then organized by type of institution and presented in PDF files:
1. Associate of Arts Granting Institutions
2. Bachelor of Arts Granting Institutions
3. Master of Arts and Professional Degree Granting Institutions
4. Doctoral Degree Granting Institutions
Source: ACRL”
For those of you in this sector, these are the data you need to compare and contrast.
Stephen