On Monday Jan. 29th, 2018 we’ll be releasing the Ontario Public Library Data Analysis!

Here’s a preview of our performance in our sector:

Federation of Ontario Public Libraries
Ontario Public Library Operating Data 2007-2016
Overview, Primer on Library Statistics, and Collected Tables
Robert E. Molyneux, MSLS, PhD, Statistician
Stephen Abram, MLS, FSLA, Executive Director, FOPL
Released: January 2018

Loads of new measures and tables!

 

Library numbers 2007 2016 Growth
POPULATION
Total      11,655,750       13,594,876 17%
Per library               38,595                45,016
PROGRAMS
Total number of library programs            137,488             250,344 82%
Total Attendance         2,717,774          4,506,217 66%
Programs per library                     455                      829 54%
Attendance per library                 8,999                14,921 60%
Average attendance per capita                      0.6                       0.8 70%
CIRCULATION
Total (excludes digital)    115,256,552     125,052,817 8%
Per library            381,644             414,082
EXPENDITURES Per Capita  $             61.59  $              62.04 1%

 

Table of Contents

Introduction 1
Primer on Library Data 7
The Ontario Public Library Data 17
Population and Circulation at Ontario Public Libraries, 2007-2016 22
Table 1: Summary Characteristics of Ontario Public Libraries, 2007-2016 24
Charts based on Table 1’s Summary Data 34
Key Ratios 40
Table 2: Key Ratios at Ontario Public Libraries, 2016 44
Rank Order Tables 50
Table 3: Rank Order Table: Circulations per capita 52
Table 4: Rank Order Table: Active Cardholders per capita 58
Table 5: Rank Order Table: Total Expenditures per capita 63
Table 6: Rank Order Table: Electronic Materials Expenditures per
capita 70
Table 7: Rank Order Table: Program Attendance per 100 population 76
New Measures 82
Table 8: Material Holdings, by Band 84
Table 9: Rank Order Table: Titles Held 85
Program Details 91
Table 10: Programs by subjects offered 92
Social Media 94
Table 11: Social Media Summary 95
Additional Expenditure Categories 96
Table 12: Select Expenditure Categories as a % of Total Operating Expenditures 98
Table 13: Capital Expenditures 99

This report contains some preliminary analyses and comparisons of Ontario public library performance from 2007-2016. Credit is due to our Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sport for jumping on the open-data trend and making the raw data that public libraries have contributed since 1998 available for further analysis and usage. The Ministry open data that we will get is now timelier and we received the data in Dec. 2017 before Super Conference 2018. We thank them for this and note that the 2017 data will be even more timely. This is great and our sector’s data will be even current.