Active Cardholders as a Percentage of Population (Resident) at Ontario’s Public Libraries, 2001-2010
FOPL Data Report, Week 9 (plus the Primer)
In past weekly reports, we have often discussed the variable measuring each library’s active cardholders and have used it in calculations of a means of providing an alternate to the traditional per capita which is based on resident population. This alternative calculation
using cardholders had the advantage of giving us a measure of use by the actual users of the library as opposed to the residents of an area who have rights to use a library but may—or may not—avail themselves of that right in a measurable way. While many libraries require users to have library cards to use the library’s resources, not all do. As a result, not all potentially measurable use of the Ontario libraries is, in fact, measured.
Costs can often be measured but benefits are notoriously difficult and as we in the library community well know, one can benefit from a library even if never setting foot in it. People who do use a library’s resources may develop new products or ways of doing things which benefit the library’s resident population. Still, with active cardholders, we are closer to measuring actual users and we have seen episodic evidence in these reports that the percentage of the resident population getting cards is declining. This phenomenon was noted in passing in reports which featured other variables, when cardholders as a percentage of the libraries’ resident population was not central to the report.
We examine this question in more detail with this report.
FOPL9_Active_Cardholders_as_a_percent_of_population3 (2 page PDF)