"LIBRARIES: HOW THEY STACKUP"
OCLC LOOKS AT THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF LIBRARIES*
by Sue Palmatier
State Data Coordinator
North Country Office, Lancaster

Libraries: How They Stack Up, a recent report from OCLC, is a snapshot of the economic impact of libraries in the U.S. and around the world, making some interesting and informative comparisons among professions, sectors, and destinations.

Here are some statistics you can toss out the next time you go to town meeting, having a barbecue, wait in line at Shaw's, or visit the dentist. Spread the word about the value of libraries in our lives.

Libraries buy about $31 billion in goods and services worldwide every year; U.S. libraries account for $14 billion of those purchases. This is more than Americans spend to buy videos or athletic footwear or to visit bars and taverns; it's just short of what businesses spend on magazine advertising. Just imagine the impact if all those cards that fall out of Newsweek, Family Circle, and PC Magazine were ads for library service.

How much do New Hampshire libraries spend on goods and services? In 2002 they spent $41.6 million.

U.S. public libraries circulate 1.8 billion items a year, including interlibrary loan; academic libraries add 136 million to that number, for a total circulation of more than 1.9 billion per year. New Hampshire public libraries circulated 8.2 million items last year; that 6.4 items per capita. Rather striking for one of the smallest states in the country.

Did you know that U.S. public library cardholders outnumber Amazon customers by almost 5 to 1? That every day, U.S. libraries circulate 4 times as many items as Amazon handles? Or that libraries circulate more items than FedEx ships every day? Amazon has 30 million customers; public libraries have 148 million registered borrowers. Amazon ships 1.5 million items a day; FedEx ships about 5.3 million items a day; but public libraries circulate 5.4 million items a day. New Hampshire public libraries circulated 22,450 items a day in 2002. Are you impressed yet?

How about the fact that more than one out of every six people in the world is a registered library user? The world has 6.2 billion people; 1.1 billion have library cards. Almost 650,000 cards belong to New Hampshire library users.

Which gets the highest attendance, libraries or sports events? If you said libraries, you've either been peeking or you've notice a theme running through this article: libraries are popular. Attendance at U.S. professional and college football, basketball, baseball, and hockey games in 2002? 204 million. Visits to public libraries in the U.S.? 1.1 billion. In other words, more than five times as many people went to public libraries in this country in 2002 as sat in arenas and stadiums noshing hot dogs, popcorn, and Coke. In New Hampshire alone, 5.1 million people visited their local libraries last year.

If all those library patrons were to pay the average sports ticket price of $35 every time they visited a library, U.S. libraries would take in more than $39 billion in revenues each year. In 2002, New Hampshire public libraries would have had $1.8 billion to spend - considerably more than the $41.5 million they actually received.
The one million libraries in the world (139,800 in the U.S. alone) hold 16 million volumes, about 2.5 for every person on earth. At an average price of $45 per book, those library holdings are worth $720 billion, or almost three-quarters of a trillion dollars. Public libraries account for about $202 billion of that figure. New Hampshire libraries hold 5.6 million books; at $45 per volume, they're worth about $252 million. Is your insurance up to date? After all, you have custody of almost 4« books for every person in the state.

There are 690,000 librarians in the world; 203,000 are in the U.S. - about the same as the number of architects, and more than twice the number of rocket scientists. Of those 203,000 librarians, 626 work in public libraries in New Hampshire. U.S. librarians provide over 422 million hours of service every year (203,000 x 40 x 52). Using that formula, New Hampshire public librarians provided more than 1.3 million hours of service in 2002. You all deserve a long, relaxing vacation.

OCLC found that libraries stack up quite nicely against other destinations, sectors, and professions. The next time you need to defend your budget, your staffing, or your services, you might define your library as an integral part of a great movement

• the library as an economic engine
• the library as a logistics expert
• the library as a valued destination
• the library as a global information supplier
• the library as home to a vibrant and sizable profession

And don't forget...

• the library as a wondrous place to be.

For more information, see the full report at http://www.oclc.org/index/compare/default.htm.