Alexander Johannesen wrote:
> On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 01:55, Walker, David <dwalker_at_calstate.edu> wrote:
>
>> So let's point out some other realities:
>> 1. As Karen and others have mentioned, usage of libraries is *increasing*.
>>
>
> In a recession, sure.
>
>
The stats I mentioned were for *public* libraries, and the increase has
taken place over the last 5 years, not just in the recession. More study
is needed to understand what is behind those numbers* but they do
indicate that public libraries are still heavily used.
I'm not surprised at the drop in academic library use, in that academic
libraries now provide a wide range of online information resources, as
David Walker has stated, so users are 'using the library' from their
dorm rooms. I think we could also prove that for university students,
online beats going to the library every time even if the information
resources are not equivalent. (I have some anecdotal evidence to that
from my own experience on the MELVYL system.)
One of the reasons that I know personally that those online services are
valuable is that I lost access to them when I left the university, and
cannot replace them as an individual nor through the public library. If
you want access to, say, JSTOR, you have to be associated with an
academic institution. These are not services that you can replace
through, say, Google, or any other open access information services. As
long as they remain exclusive, the institutional access (which is
usually associated with the library) will remain heavily used.
kc
* I repeat here, and note that this is *per capita*:
"During the last five years service counts per capita increased for
visits (4%), circulation (5%) and Internet terminals per 1000 population
(23%)."
--
-----------------------------------
Karen Coyle / Digital Library Consultant
kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://www.kcoyle.net
ph.: 510-540-7596 skype: kcoylenet
fx.: 510-848-3913
mo.: 510-435-8234
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Received on Wed May 06 2009 - 10:18:53 EDT