The world has about two hundred countries.
In most of them statistics on libraries and library use is incomplete, outdated or absent. Both IFLA and OCLC have tried to gather global library statistics. If we look closely at the data, we find that they can not be trusted for comparisons between countries.
Let us look at the OCLC data on Puerto Rico as a concrete example. If you want to know the overall library situation, you find the following information in the global statistics database:
Total
- Expenditures: $ 37,636,000
- Librarians: 384
- Libraries: 846
- Users: 953,335
- Volumes: 64,566,731
These numbers are misleading, since they (a) combine numbers from widely different years; (b) lack information from certain libraries. Specifically:
- Data from 1990. Does not include the national library or the sixteen special libraries registered
- Data from 1990. Does not include the national library or the special libraries
- Data from 2010. Does not include the national library
- Combines data from 1984, 1990 and 2008 (!)
- Combines data from 1984, 1990 and 2008 (!). Does not include the national library.
Significant digits
Adding numbers from 1984, 1990 and 2008 is of course meaningless.
The number of significant figures or digits (Wikipedia) provided is also misleading. The number given as $ 37,636,000 must be rounded to $ 38,000,000 since the expenditures for academic libraries, which is one of the addends, is rounded to $ 25,000,000.
Resources
- PL 40/11: Hard work for OCLC. With Norway as a case we show how hard it is to get reliable and current statistics from many countries.
- PL 36/11: Sharing global statistics. A realistic approach to statistical information.
- PL 59/10: Statistics for action
GLOSSA
APPENDIX
National library
- expenditures: NA
- librarians: NA
- libraries: NA
- users: 3,000 – 1984 – ALA World Encyclopedia of Library and Information Services (ALA, 1986) (= WELIS, 1986)
- volumes: NA
Academic libraries
- expenditures: $ 25,000,000 – 1990 – World Encyclopedia of Library and Information Services (ALA, 1993) (= WELIS, 1993)
- librarians: 255 – 1990 – WELIS, 1993
- libraries: 70 – 2010 – IFLA World Report 2010
- users: 230,000 – 1990 – WELIS, 1993
- volumes: 60,185,576 – 2008 – World Guide to Libraries (Saur, 2011). Cutoff date is 2010. Volumes data are from 2008 obtained from CD-ROM version. (= WGL, 2011)
School
- expenditures: $ 9,136,000 – 1990 – WELIS, 1993
- librarians: 124 – 1990 – WELIS, 1993
- libraries – 700 – 2010 – IFLA World Report 2010
- users: 662,000 – 1990 – WELIS, 1993
- volumes: 3,100,000 – 1990 – WELIS, 1993
Special
- expenditures: NA
- librarians: NA
- libraries: 16 – 2010 – WGL, 2011
- users: 4,800 – 1984 – WELIS, 1986
- volumes: 360,935 – 2008 – WGL, 2011
Public
- expenditures: $ 3,500,000 – 1990 – WELIS, 1993
- librarians: 5 – 1990 – WELIS, 1993
- libraries: 60 – 2010 – IFLA World Report 2010
- users: 53,535 – 2008 – World Information Report (UNESCO, 1997)
- volumes: 920,220 – 2005 – WGL, 2011
