For today’s doodle, I surveyed the 5-year trend in the amount Nebraska public libraries have been spending on print materials compared to electronic resources. The date range for the trend is fiscal year 2007/2008 through 2011/2012. The charts below illustrate how funds spent purchasing print materials have leveled off (-2.3%), while spending on electronic materials has risen sharply (+74.7%).
To analyze this trend another way: In FY 2008, 72% of collection expenditures went to print materials, but in 2012 this percentage had fallen to 67%. Spending on electronic resources in 2008 was 11.8% of collection budgets, but by 2012 the proportion of spending had risen to 19.7%. I’m certain this trend itself won’t surprise anyone in the library biz, but I was taken aback at the dramatic surge in spending on electronic resources.
BTW, this data was made possible by your participation in the annual Nebraska
Public Libraries Survey, which begins again for the 2012-2013 fiscal year on November 18th.
