Here’s your latest weekly report on the 2001-2013 FOPL Statistics Analysis:
This week we focus on digital materials, where we see a lot of changes.
Selected Digital Materials Held by Ontario Public Libraries, 2001-2013, All Reporting EACH Year: FOPL Data Report. Second series
In the first three weeks of this new series of FOPL reports, we have analyzed the data published by the Ministry and have seen that measures of traditional libraries services for all Ontario public libraries have plateaued. That does not mean that each library has experienced such a plateau but the published totals for all indicate this phenomenon is province wide. However, during this period, as we say, measures of electronic expenditures skyrocketed. Can we measure how many digital resources the Ontario Public Libraries hold?
The following table has a set of variables measuring CD ROMs and DVDs, as well as electronic periodicals and a count of databases. Other items were collected but these seem the best for our purposes now: to investigate the addition of library materials in digital formats. Two variables in that table show rapid growth over the period: circulating CD ROMs and DVD titles and electronic periodicals titles. Reported data for these two variables are on the first two charts which follow the table. We can see where the great growth in electronic materials expenditures is going.
Other items such as the number of reference databases and database subscriptions show peaks in 2007 and 2008, after which they fall. The number of reference databases starts at 2,000 in 2001, rises to just under 60,000 in 2009 before falling to 5,800 in 2013. Those points are in the third chart. The fluctuations show in this last chart likely reflect consolidation in database resources or different means of provisioning such resources..
The modern library is changing rapidly from the traditional model to whatever lies ahead.
Here is this week’s chapter: W5_Selected_Digital_Materials
Stephen Abram
Executive Director, FOPL