Last week we gave you the 2013 Summary table of measurements in Ontario’s public libraries. This week we get into ranking and comparing libraries by their population bands.
Population and Circulation at Ontario Public Libraries, 2001-2013, All Reporting EACH Year: FOPL Data Report, Second series
We begin the second series with a set of basic statistics: resident population, active cardholders, and circulations. The total and average per library figures are reported for population, cardholders, and circulations. The annual circulations per capita are the arithmetic mean of this figure from each of the reporting libraries. They are not calculated by dividing the sum of calculations by the sum of population per Band. The rationale for this method is to avoid the bias that comes from the skewed distribution of the size of libraries. As we have discussed, skewness is a characteristic of library distributions we are all familiar with: there are few very large libraries and many small ones. For example, the eight largest libraries in Ontario have about half of the resident population of the rest of the 293 libraries we concentrate on here and over half of the annual circulations. The large ones are different in many ways from the smaller ones. Skewness is discussed in the Primer on Library Statistics starting on page 3.
Now we turn to the tables included in this section. There are 10: one for each of our nine Bands and the first table has the totals for all libraries for 2001-2013. The Ministry has eight Bands by the size of the libraries and we have separated out the First Nations libraries in a separate Band. Note that the right-hand columns have the percentage changes observed in the variables for two intervals: 2001-2013 and from 2010-2013. The latter interval captures changes since the first series of reports.
Generally, we see increases from 2001-2010 and smaller changes since then. Of course, there are more years in the first interval but the charts included in this report will strengthen the impression that these variables are cresting. Note the declines in cardholders which the first series of FOPL reports examined in some detail. That said, we see here big numbers: Ontario’s public libraries have a great deal of impact on the life of the province’s citizens. One number that is indicative of this impact is the total number of circulations by these libraries from 2001-2013: 1,521,956,038. One and a half billion!
The first chart shows the total annual circulation for all libraries reporting each year and the crest observed in circulations is clear. About 2010, the use citizens put on libraries’ facilities to circulate materials from the traditional collection, had its high point in 2012. The next two charts will confirm that something has changed.
The second chart is a bit more complex because it plots two variables: the number of resident population (the higher number is represented by a blue line) and of active cardholders (a red line) for all Ontario public libraries. It seems resident population, as we expect from the tables reviewed above, is increasing at a steady pace however, cardholders are not. What percent of the growing population is becoming an active cardholder? Chart 3 answers that question: it is declining—and it crested in 2002.
This result confirms the analysis we presented tentatively in the earlier series of reports. This result is a matter worth considering. Here is this week’s chapter:
W2_Population_and_Circulation (1)
Stephen Abram
Executive Director, FOPL