Expenditure in British Public and Academic Libraries on Online Services
| Pages | 31-37 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb040432 |
| Published date | 01 January 1990 |
| Date | 01 January 1990 |
| Author | Harry East |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
31
Expenditure in British Public and
Academic Libraries on Online Services
by
Harry East
Centre for
Communication
and Information
Studies,
Polytechnic
of
Central London
Use and expenditure
Future historians, using the documentary evi-
dence remaining, might well be excused for
believing that online searching was a major
activity in libraries and information services in
the 1970s and 80s. The publication of several
professional journals and the proceedings of
regular, well-attended conferences entirely
devoted to the topic would suggest such a con-
clusion. In reality, the growth of online use in
the publicly-funded sector has been small, as
can be judged by the relatively low levels of
expenditure involved. For public libraries it has
been estimated that spending on online services
has been of the order of 0.1% of the total
budgets.(1) The average online expenditure of
British universities has been about what it costs
to employ one member of secretarial staff
each.(2)(3)
The above inferences come from extensive sur-
veys made by the Centre for Communication
and Information Studies (CCIS) since mid-
1987.
At CCIS we have been compiling indica-
tors for online use in Great Britain, using a
(modified) method, devised in the USA by Mar-
tha Williams.(4) This involves extracting data
from invoices received, from online service
suppliers, by panels of service users. So far
three
panels,
each covering approximately
25%
of active online user institutions in their respec-
tive sectors (universities, polytechnics and
pub-
lic libraries) have been established.(5) Addi-
tional panels, representing commerce, industry
and government institutions
are
currently being
organised.
These "institutional" panels have proved to be
a rich source of information. They constitute a
sample of libraries and information services
responding to the evolution of new modes of
information access. While the panels were re-
cruited principally for surveys of online usage,
they are proving
to
be valuable in investigations
of exploitation of other electronic media, for
example, the take-up of CD-ROM.
Although, in speaking and writing about our
surveys, we often describe them as studies of
"use"
what we actually measure is expenditure.
"Use"
is a difficult concept to define, its par-
ameters even more so. Nevertheless, consu-
mers'
expenditures (or suppliers' revenues) are
probably the most important indicators of mar-
ket activity.
Panel characteristics
Table
1
gives data on the three panels and their
average annual expenditure on online services.
(All the figures in this paper refer to expenditure
Panel
Public libraries
Polytechnics
Universities
Number of
members
19
9
13
Average annual
expenditure
per member
[£000s]
4.0
6.7
9.6
Table 1. Panel characteristics
Total annual
expenditure
all members
[£000s]
75.4
60.6
124.2
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