PL 49/08: Putting statistics to work 2

In library statistics, our most urgent task is to shift our statistical systems from a paper-based - or industrial - model to a knowledge-based, digital model.

Snake-haired Medusa (right) was killed by Perseus.

This is a major undertaking, which may take a generation or more to be completed. Like all big development efforts, it will involve a combination of systems, skills and organizational development. Technology should not be a big issue, however. The tools we need to produce and study library statistics are coming fast. Cheap digital devices, both portable and stationary, are spreading rapidly in most countries of the world.

PL 48/08: Putting statistics to work 1

Next year IFLA will meet in in the marvellous city of Milan.

Some people stay forever in Milan …

I have not visited Milan itself for forty years. But I had the good fortune to go to Florence (twice - to study Italian) and Bologna only a few years ago. It will be great to come back to Italy.

With a bit of statistics, of course.

PL 46/08: Free tools for rapid change

Small is beautiful. Particularly on the web.

In his bestselling book, “The world is flat”, Thomas Friedman described the removal of barriers to trade, exchange and interaction.  The well-known web economist Hal Varian writes on he democratization of data. He refers mainly to small businesses:

PL 42/08: Lending of non-fiction

Norwegian public libraries receive about forty percent of their new books from The Norwegian Purchasing Programme for Fiction and Non-fiction.

The fiction programme goes back to the 1970s and covers about 200 titles for adults and 110 titles for children every year. Norwegian non-fiction books have been included, but on a smaller scale,  since 2005. Currently one thousand copies of about fifty non-fiction titles are purchased every year. The books are distributed to all public libraries in Norway.

PL 41/08: Steady decline in book lending

In Norway, as in other Nordic countries, book lending is falling steadily. The trend is most pronounced in larger communities.

The library statistics annual for 2007 has just been published - and I use the occasion to take a look at lending. Long term changes are much more significant than what happens from one year to the next. I have therefore compared the 2007 data with 2001 - rather than with 2006.

PL 28/08: Global library statistics

The big jamboreee is over.

Soap bubbles in Veracruz.

On August 18 and 19 I went to Montreal for a satellite conference on global library statistics. It was - as usual - very good to meet colleagues in a more specialized setting.

PL 23/08: Virtual visits in large cities

With data from the “Toronto study” of metropolitan statistics I have now calculated the ratio between virtual and physical visits in 2006 for all the cities included.

Picture: City of Gold Coast, Australia (67 virtual per 100 phusical visits)

Cities with more than one million inhabitants

The median is 34 virtual per 100 physical visits

PL 22/08: Really big libraries

Toronto Public Library has collected a valuable data set on big urban libraries on behalf of the Metropolitan Libraries Section of IFLA.

The data are published as a single, large table in the Statistics and Evaluation Section Newsletter, July 2008. To make them easier to interpret, I have started to make a series of smaller statistical tables - available through Google Docs - covering particular aspects of library operations.

PL 21/08: Metropolitan visits

In its recent newsletter, the IFLA Statistics and evaluation section presents an interesting set of data on metropolitan libraries, from the year 2006.

Hong Kong Central Library.

Thirteen library systems serve a population of more than one million:

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