LIBECON2000: The Millennium Report

David Fuegi, John Sumsion and Phillip Ramsdale describe the LIBECON2000 Project and summarise the project’s Millennium Report. Funded by DG13 under FP4, Libecon2000 is fully described on its own Web site [1] where statistics on the libraries of 29 European countries [2] are found, constituting an indispensable resource for policymakers and others with an interest in libraries at the European level. This has been achieved with the assistance of EBLIDA, IFLA, UNESCO and colleagues throughout Europe. During 2000, one more year of data will be added. The Millennium Report evaluates the main trends and lessons from the financial and statistical data collected over the last 10 years.

Introduction

LIBECON2000 ensures that data is recent, formulated to a common standard, validated and grossed up in appropriate cases to produce valid trend lines. Financial data is standardised on the Euro to allow comparisons between countries and over time. The Web site provides quick and easy access to the data and to the sources. Besides providing a tool for research, monitoring, benchmarking and comparison, the project has impacted on the revision of ISO2789 [library statistics] and influenced a number of countries to adopt ISO2789 or to carry out surveys for the first time or in an improved format.

The Millennium Report and the Web site cover Central and Eastern Europe, the EFTA countries and the European Union and all library sectors - schools, higher [tertiary] education, national, public, special [broken down for the first time into sub-sectors] and other major non-specialised. For the sake of brevity, comment is here restricted mainly to the public library and tertiary education sectors. For details and for the full text, please visit the Web site.

Libraries are developing an ever increasing role in the supply of knowledge and it is estimated that in the main countries of Europe, total expenditure on libraries now amounts to 16 billions euros per year. As we enter the new millennium, rapid progress in methods of distributing knowledge by electronic means is being made and librarians are playing a key role in managing this information revolution. In this context, we have a concern to monitor the economic place which libraries occupy to better inform policy judgements and investment appraisals by international, national and local governments. A network of mainly professional contacts has been established in each country to co-ordinate the return of statistical information on a regular basis and these data, and useful source references, are maintained on the LIBECON 2000 Web site. Our aim is to create a virtual community of those who create and use library statistics of European countries. There are a number of advantages arising from this approach:

• Potentially achieve more rapid publication;
• Achieve wider dissemination to users who are scattered and mainly require facts rather than whole publications;
• Overcome language barriers;
• Facilitate communication between producers and users.

The European focus of the project arises from the policy aims of our funding body, the European Commission and the work could usefully be extended more widely if a way could be found to do so. For instance data collected in last year’s surveys have already been passed to UNESCO for incorporation in the United Nations Statistical Year Book, and if the LIBECON surveys were extended to other countries a precedent already exists to channel such data through to the main international agencies.

A major problem in assembling meaningful statistics is gaining access to information prepared to consistent definitions. UNESCO pioneered standardisation in this field and have been publishing library statistics of many countries for many years and formulated the six standard sectors [3] which they respectively survey on a three-year cycle. ISO, the worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies) undertakes the work of preparing International Standards through its technical committees. International organisations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work of refining the definitions, and LIBECON2000 is seeking to inform the standards debate. Our ability to do this arises from the fact that we are one of the few to have attempted to collate and compare library statistics from many countries and thus have first-hand experience of the pitfalls.

What LIBECON2000 does is both more extensive and more limited than UNESCO. More limited in that we cover only 29 countries, whereas UNESCO aims to cover the whole world. We are more extensive in that we ask more questions and attach importance to financial data which are presented in standardised form [euros] and not in national currencies. We also have the resources to check more thoroughly with our sources and, unlike UNESCO, we gross-up to account for missing data and provide a bibliography, list of contacts and translations of major column headings in the original publications. Like UNESCO, LIBECON2000 surveys countries, not libraries. In other words, we do not undertake primary survey work. We go beyond UNESCO also in publishing a commentary on trends. Previous publications in the series include Library Economics in Europe [4] and Library Economics in Central and Eastern Europe [5].

Situation Summary Based On The Millennium Report

1. Operational Trends [All Sectors]

i. Staff

We estimate that about 374,000 staff were employed in libraries, an increase of 3.7 % since 1991. This increase in staffing numbers is weighted towards the professional staff whose numbers increased by 4.9 % over the period. The increase in Trained staff occurs mostly in EU States.

The number of trained librarians in all sectors of libraries (206,000) is higher than previous estimates for the mid-1990’s (175,800 for 1991). However, the number of other support staff is substantially lower than previous estimates. Proportionately the returns for ‘Other Staff’ are appreciably lower in the CEE than in the EU.

Table 1 Staff FTE * (000s)

* Full Time Equivalent, i.e. part time staff count as fractions in proportion to hours worked

ii. Materials

The overall position and trends are summarised in this table:

Table 2 Trends in Materials Provision (millions)

The trends in annual additions to stock appear to vary between sectors. National libraries report a growth in their annual additions in books and audio-visual materials. Public libraries book acquisitions fell between 1991 - 1995 but have since stabilised, while their audio-visual materials have increased steadily. With a large increase in the population served by Tertiary Education, so have their book acquisitions grown hugely, but there has been a decline in audio visual additions.

iii. Use and users

The count of Registered Members increased in total from 126 million to 139 million - an increase of 10.5 per cent. As this count includes those who use several libraries the proportion it represents out of the total population (484 million) - 29 per cent - is disappointingly low. But the trend is moving upwards. Estimates for Loan Transactions at 3,543 million and Visits at 3,468 million are close and show only a small difference in trend: + 5.2 % against - 1.3 %. When taken together the ratio for Loan Transactions per Registered Member point to high intensity of use - moving from 26.8 to 25.5.

iv. Modernisation

Overall total estimates show the following: Workstations for users increased more than fourfold from 74,000 in 1991 to 310,000 in 1998. The stock of CD ROMs went up exponentially during the second half of the period, going from an estimated 456,000 in 1991 to 2,500,000 in 1998. The percentage of catalogue records automated is estimated to have gone up from 36 to 46 per cent.

v. Service points

Including all sectors, it is estimated that in 1998 there were 224,000 service points throughout the study area. There has been a considerable contraction since 1991, averaging 7.1 %, but this has taken place particularly in the Central & Eastern European countries (CEE) where the proportionate drop was 14 % and where the main closures took place in public libraries.

2. Financial Trends

[6] There has been greatly increased activity in Tertiary Libraries and lack of growth - overall - in the Public Library sector, with modest growth in National Libraries. The obvious expectation from this is that levels of expenditure have increased more in the Tertiary sector than in others. Here we look at the situation overall.

Table 3 Main trends in financial results (All sectors of library)

Since staffing costs represent the largest part of the budget, expenditure on staff has increased at a rate reflected by the charge in total expenditure.

The total expenditure on conventional materials also shows an average increase, but this average conceals an estimated + 64 % for Special Libraries, + 40 % for Tertiary, + 27 % for National, + 33 % for Schools, and only + 1 % for Public Libraries.

The data show a dramatic (67 per cent) increase in expenditure on electronic materials. This is heavily concentrated in the Tertiary and Special Libraries sectors - and Special Libraries are more fully represented in these statistics than ever before.

It is significant, however, that the 1998 results show electronic information still at only 15 per cent of total materials expenditure - so confirming that conventional materials are still dominant.

Perhaps the most surprising revelation in this set of statistics lies in the specifically identified ‘Income Items’. The magnitude of the increase in Fees & Charges - 70 per cent - is impressive, and the pattern is virtually universal across all countries. This is a new trend.

i. The importance of the library sectors

One would expect, even over a lengthy period, to find little change in the relative size of the various library sectors. Estimates in previous surveys showed that, between 1981 and 1995 public libraries and higher education libraries increased their share of total spending on libraries - with the share of other sectors largely unchanged. In this survey we find a very different result - as illustrated in this table:

Table 4 Library sector shares

* EU States only § estimated in The Historic Database, Libecon2000 Project Deliverable D, 1998

The main reason for these changes is the stricter application of sectoral definitions and better returns for the Special Library sector in this later canvass. In view of this major change Table 4 above also includes a column to show how different the sector proportions appear when analysed by the numbers of staff employed rather than by expenditure.

ii Tertiary education sector

Between 1991 - 1998 staff plus Student totals in Tertiary education went from 1,534,000 to almost 2 million. Changes in expenditure are as shown in the following table 5.

Table 5 Tertiary libraries expenditure and income - all states

i. National Library Sector

Financial trends for national libraries are as shown in the following table.

Table 6 National libraries expenditure & income - all countries

§ ‘3’ in 1993

ii. Public libraries sector

Over the seven years, service points have decreased by 18 per cent. The scale of this decline is much influenced by the position in Poland (decrease from 10,300 to 3,565). But most countries show decreases between 8 and 15 per cent.

The following general conclusions emerge from the data:

• There is a huge difference in the scale of public library operations between those countries which have had a well resourced public library service for many years and those countries without this historical tradition.
• There are some countries developing their public libraries from a low base showing significant increases since 1991 - and others with no apparent development. Many countries have a long way to go to begin to match the activity levels accepted as normal elsewhere.
• There are obvious connections between high levels of Stock, Loans and Additions to Stock - which can be studied in the statistical database.
• There are well publicised initiatives to develop networking, IT and the Internet in public libraries. So far, with the possible exception of the UK, this does not seem to have diminished the take up of traditional services.

Table 7 Public libraries expenditure and income - all countries

Some Future Challenges

The report’s recommendations cover the need for further work and for improved statistical representation of information technology in libraries. More importantly, perhaps, they draw policy makers’ attention once again to issues such as the small average size of university libraries in some countries and of public library authorities in others. Disparities in provision are quite marked and stand out from the data. The report calls upon governments to use the information provided to benchmark aspects of their services with a view to improving to the standard of the best.

The future of LIBECON is surrounded by some uncertainties at the time of writing. UNESCO, which has pioneered the production of international library statistics since the 1970s is reducing the numbers of its statistical staff and it is not clear what the consequences of this might be for library and other cultural statistics. EUROSTAT, which collects statistics for the European Union, has recently been asked to compile cultural statistics at the EU level but has not included libraries in its programme. A considerable onus thus lies on LIBECON to first maintain the series of statistics and secondly develop their utility for policy makers. In this respect, we would like to extend our activities beyond Europe. Libraries and the world of information are changing rapidly as technologies change and governments emphasise the role of libraries in supporting education, social inclusion and economic growth as well as the more traditional cultural role. Our challenge is to develop the international framework for producing reliable statistical information to monitor the success or otherwise of libraries. We have made a start in Europe and hope to secure funding to continue the work.

The Libecon2000 Millennium Report and database are available on CDRom at 60gbp including tax and postage.
It can be ordered on the Web site or by post direct to:
J.Toop
IPF
NLA Tower
Addiscombe Road
Croydon CR0 0XT
United Kingdom
Fax +44 (0) 208 681 6741

References

1. LIBECON2000 Web site
   URL: <http://www.libecon2000.org/>
2. The LIBECON 2000 survey area comprises:-
   States in Central & Eastern Europe (CEEC):
   Bulgaria; Czech Republic; Estonia; Hungary; Latvia; Lithuania; Poland; Romania; Slovak Rep; Slovenia.
   Member states of the European Union (EU):
   Austria; Belgium; Denmark; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; Ireland; Italy; Luxembourg; Netherlands; Portugal; Spain; Sweden; UK.
   Other States within the European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA):
   Iceland; Liechtenstein; Norway; Switzerland.
   Russia has also recently agreed to contribute data which it is hoped to add during 2000.
3. LIBRARY SECTORS (ISO 2789):-
   NATIONAL LIBRARIES: typically functioning as a “deposit” library and normally compiling a national bibliography.
   LIBRARIES OF INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION: primarily serving teaching at the tertiary level.
   PUBLIC LIBRARIES: serving the population free of charge or for a nominal fee.
   SPECIAL LIBRARIES: catering for: Government; Health Services; Professional associations; Industrial & commercial concerns; and other specialised interests.
   OTHER MAJOR NON-SPECIALISED LIBRARIES: libraries of a learned character with collections in excess of 150,000 stock items.
   SCHOOL LIBRARIES: attached to all types of schools and colleges below the tertiary level of education.
4. Ramsdale, P. & Fuegi, D. (1997) Library Economics in Central and Eastern Europe, Luxembourg, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.
5. Ramsdale, Phillip. (1995) Library economics in Europe: An Update-1981-90, Luxembourg, Office for Official Publication of the European Communities.
6. Note on financial results. Estimates of expenditure and income have been derived by a careful and sophisticated set of calculations aimed to extract the maximum value from those data provided, but there are particular notes of caution to be borne in mind. First, data for some large countries are missing. This weakness affects estimates of absolute value much more than it does estimates of trends over time, where there can be good confidence. Second, there are some heads and categories with a particularly low response where the confidence in the total estimates has to be qualified. For example, the tables on spending on electronic materials and on automation were completed by very few responders.

Author Details

IPF is wholly owned by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy. The company provides an extensive range of services to over 1,200 public services under five main activity streams. These are:

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5. International and European activities.

David Fuegi
Email: david@fuegi.demon.co.uk

David Fuegi is a Consultant with IPF. He is joint author of “Library Performance Indicators and Library Management Tools” [1995] and of “Study of Library Economics of Central and Eastern Europe” [1998] both published in Luxembourg by the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. He is currently project manager for the LIBECON2000 project is joint author of the project’s Millennium Study. Other major current projects include business planning for the TACIS Russian State Library Project in Moscow and drafting public library standards for England for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. He manages the IPF metric and process benchmarking clubs in which over 100 UK library authorities participate. He is special adviser to the UK Committee on Public Library Statistics which he chaired for 15 years and is a member of the UK ISO [BSI] committee on library statistics and performance indicators [ISO 2789 etc]. Other European library projects in which he has worked include the Publica Project [DG13], ISTAR [DG5] and PLDP [DG16]. Formerly he was Library Advisor to UK government ministers responsible for Libraries and held senior positions in public libraries.

John Sumsion

John Sumsion took a first class degree in Modern History at Cambridge and then spent two years at (M.A. 1953) and Cornell studying and teaching Economics. After a long career in shoe manufacturing he was appointed in 1981 to set up the Public Lending Right operation and gained valuable knowledge of UK public libraries through operating and evaluating the PLR statistical sampling scheme. In his PLR work he developed new ways of analysing book loans and describing the Buying:Borrowing features of the book trade.

John then spent five years as Director of Library & Information Statistics Unit (LISU) at Loughborough University. He was an active member of the Library & Information Services Council (England) and his research covered public, academic and special libraries. On retiring from LISU in September 1996 he was appointed Senior Honorary Fellow in Loughborough's Department of Information Science - which is now his base for personal teaching, research and consultancy.

Phillip Ramsdale
Email: phillip.ramsdale@ipf.co.uk

Phillip Ramsdale is Executive Director of IPF. He headed each of the previous studies undertaken for DG XIII concerning the monitoring of library activities in Europe. He is a statistician who manages a portfolio of research contracts for a number of Government Departments in the United Kingdom and has considerable international research experience arising from work undertaken for DG V and DG X and UNESCO. He directs one of the most comprehensive public service databases maintained by any non-governmental organisation and has established a respected reputation for IPF in the statistical field.

For citation purposes:
David Fuegi, John Sumsion and Phillip Ramsdale, "LIBECON2000: The Millennium Report", Exploit Interactive, issue 7, 2nd October 2000
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue7/libecon/>

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