4. Data Source Sites

In this section you can find collections of data that have already been gathered. Most of these collections are library-related, but some provide demographic information that might be useful for studying trends in library usage, funding, and support. 

We welcome suggestions for additional web sites. For this section, please send suggestions to Rebecca Jackson at rjackson@iastate.edu. 

Academic Library Peer Comparison Tool
http://www.nclis.gov/statsurv/surveys/academic/academic.html

From the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS), this site allows users to create reports that compare one library to others. Statistics collected include reference transactions, presentations, online services, and reference services by e-mail or Web.

 

ACRL Statistical Summary for Academic Libraries
http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=statistics&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=73675

Summary reports from ACRL's Academic Library Trends & Statistics with data from more than 1,100 institutions, 1998 to the most recent. Includes information on reference statistics broken down by type of academic library.

 

ARL Statistics
http://www.arl.org/stats/arlstat/

The Association of Research Libraries statistics page offers links to the various types of data the organization collects. Includes data that may be of interest for reference researchers, such as expenditures on reference materials and numbers of reference transactions.

 

ARL Statistics at University of Virginia
http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/arl/

Another ARL statistics site providing interactive access to these statistics.

 

Library Research Service
http://www.lrs.org/

The Library Research Service is a unit of the Colorado State Library and the Colorado Department of Education that is operated in partnership with the Library and Information Science (LIS) Program, College of Education, University of Denver. LRS reports and analyzes statistics on school, public, and academic libraries, and conducts studies on major library issues. Primarily focused on school and public libraries, all kinds of statistics and issues are analyzed.

 

National Center for Educational Statistics
http://nces.ed.gov/

This U.S. federal agency offers many kinds of educational statistics. They will be particularly helpful for research on K-12 school and educational trends.

 

NCES Library Statistics Program Data Files
http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/libraries/DataFiles.asp#Aca

The National Center for Educational Statistics’ data files from academic, public, school, state, and federal libraries. Includes staffing levels and reference services.

 

NCLIS Library Statistics Cooperative Program
http://www.nclis.gov/statsurv/statist.html

National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) offers information about the cooperative program, as well as links to various surveys and statistics. Includes statistics on public, school, academic, and state library agencies.

 

NISO Library Statistics
http://www.niso.org/committees/committee_ay.html

The National Information Standards Organization provides information about standards for library statistics-collecting. Also includes standards for measuring data collection in libraries.

 

Library Statistics and Performance Measures
http://web.syr.edu/~jryan/infopro/stateco.html

An interesting bibliography with links to data on such topics as the economic value of libraries and impact measures and studies. Written by Joe Ryan of Florida State UniversitySchool of Information Studies.

 

U.S. Census Bureau
http://censtats.census.gov/

Census bureau statistics. May be useful for comparing different types of library statistics to general U.S. statistical trends.

 

U.S. Census Bureau Library Statistics
http://www.census.gov/govs/www/library.html

Includes public, state, and academic library surveys.