PL 19/08: Physical and virtual traffic

Libraries depend on their users.

Libraries are text providers rather than temples. Governments and politicians are increasingly watching traffic – or usage - rather than buildings and collections. They speak the language of economy and look for tangible benefits from their investments in libraries and other public services.

We may call this NPM – New Public Management. Some embrace it. Others oppose it. But nobody can avoid it. In the industrial economy culture was insulated from the market. In the post-industrial economy, culture IS the market.

The production and consumption of symbolic or cultural goods – media, education, research, entertainment, travel - is our new economic core. Libraries are moving towards the centre, losing their sacred status “beyond the market”.  The time of reckoning – and library statistics –  has arrived.

I hve prepared two studies of library traffic – one based on physical, and one on virtual statistics – for IFLA 2008 in Quebec. The relevant links are here:

Count the traffic

This is an empirical study of visitor behavior in Norwegian public libraries in 2007-08 – with Drammen Public Library (at “Papirbredden”) as the main case.

• Slide set. Forty-eight slides as a Google Docs presentation.
• Slide set on SlideShare.
• Paper in PDF-format on IFLA web site
• Paper in HTML-format at Google Docs

How much is much?
Developing and interpreting national library visitor statistics

This is a conceptual study – with empirical illustrations – of web traffic to national libraries.

• Slide set. Eighteen slides as a Google Docs presentation
• Paper in PDF-format on IFLA web site
• Paper in HTML-format at Google Docs

Resources

• Traffic papers for IFLA in Quebec