Primary Research Group Inc. has published the: Survey of Academic Library Leadership: Print Book Collection Plans & Practices, ISBN 978-1-57440-579-8

Primary Research Group Inc. has published the: Survey of Academic Library
Leadership: Print Book Collection Plans & Practices, ISBN 978-1-57440-579-8

The 57-page study presents data from a survey of 96 North American academic
library directors, deans and university librarians about their current
practices and plans for the print book collection.  The study looks at the
relative intentions to build the print book vs. the eBook collection,
pinpointing the types of college and individuals most likely to build up one
or the other, both or neither.  Also, the report gives detailed data on the
percentage of purchases sourced from Amazon, YBP, and Coutts.  The study also
presents detailed data on the percentage of overall sales accounted by
discretionary books sales, and the percentage accounted for by standing
orders.  In an open ended question, survey participants discuss how they
expect their print book purchasing policies to change over the next few years.
In addition, the report relates mean, median, minimum and maximum levels of
spending for the institutions sampled, with data for the 2017-18 and 2018-19
academic years.

Just a few of the report’s many findings are that:

23.96% of all respondents had shifted much of their book budget to eBooks and
expected that trend to continue.  Institutions based in the US West were the
most likely to continue this shift.

Across the entire sample, mean spending on print books in 2017-18 was
$140,298.91, with a median of $25,000, a minimum of $0, and a maximum of
$4,700,000.

Private colleges were significantly more likely than public institutions to
source their print books from Amazon.

Data in the report, including spending data, is broken out by many variables,
including college type, enrollment and level of tuition, among other
variables.  Data is also broken out by some personal characteristic of the
survey respondents, such as work title and age.  The majority of survey
respondents were library directors, and the remained, largely deans or
university librarians.

A PDF version of the report is currently available from Primary Research Group
and a print version will be available for shipment on April 12  2019..  For a
table of contents, list of institutional participants, and an excerpt – visit
our website at www.PrimaryResearch.com.