Eye opening library trends
From reading Radar O’Reilly today:
Since 1995 the trend in academic libraries for reference queries per FTE and total circulation per FTE is steeply downward. Reference Queries per FTE average out to half of what they did in 1995 and total circulations average out to approximately two-thirds of 1995.
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/07/if_libraries_ha.html
The reference queries to FTE may indicate a broader trend of “not wanting to ask for help;” stemming, I believe (with no data), from the often false assumptions of “I’m okay, I can do this” which are engendered in the current practice of reassurance that kids are okay and can do it during early schooling.
The circulation numbers seem to be from only traditional physical circulations? No mention of electronic resource usage is made. Experientially, I see lots more online accessing of stuff than I do physical items. But I’d love to see more data on this. How much of this kind of aggregated data do you or your library keep?
Since I’m thinking about joining the ranks for the PhD’s, maybe I should save up these questions…