Reviews

Citation

Thornton, S. (2007), "Reviews", Performance Measurement and Metrics, Vol. 8 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/pmm.2007.27908aae.001

Reviews

LISU Annual Library Statistics 2006: featuring trend analysis of UK public and academic libraries 1995-2005Claire Creaser, Sally Maynard and Sonya WhiteLibrary and Information Statistics UnitLoughborough2006ISBN 1 905499 09 4

A Survey of Library Services to Schools and Children in the UK 2005-2006Claire Creaser, Sally Maynard and Sonya WhiteLibrary and Information Statistics UnitLoughborough2006ISBN 1 905499 10 8

A Survey of Library Services to Schools and Children in the UK 2005-2006: Regional SupplementClaire Creaser, Sally Maynard and Sonya WhiteLibrary and Information Statistics UnitLoughborough2006ISBN 1 905499 11 3

Among my many roles in a different life, I was involved in collating annual surveys of Government Libraries, and dutifully supplied LISU with each year’s collected statistics. As a consequence I would receive a complimentary copy of the Annual Library Statistics, which would provide me with an hour or twos reading, before being stashed away on my shelves, never to be opened again. Except on those desperate occasions when panic bells were ringing and either my own organisation or one of the other contributing libraries needed supporting or supplementary information. And it is on that sort of occasion you need it now, and right. Usually the information was there. If it wasn’t (and I speak from bitter experience) then it wasn’t likely to be available from anywhere else in the UK.

The annual contains statistical and analytical information for almost all publicly funded library services in the United Kingdom, Public, Academic, Governmental and National Libraries. Not only that, it also provides ten-year trend analyses, so that it is possible to identify causal relationships between government and national policies which take time to filter through the system. The range of information it contains is quite remarkable, and although some of the information is readily available elsewhere, it is possible to flip from Public to Academic to National trends and back again with ease and facility, knowing that the statistics have all been normalised and checked for continuity issues.

t is not just limited to purely library statistics, with additional supportive (and often difficult to trace) information easily to hand. Population figures, GDP and annual retail price index, UK/US exchange rates, book and serial price indices (both calendar and academic years) number of serial titles, and so on. And finally, my favourite tables – the most borrowed authors. Reading this is usually accompanied by sounds of disbelief and cries of “Why isn’t Terry Pratchett in the top 20 titles?”.

The most illuminating section is the summary of key findings, with some standing out like warning beacons – the number of chartered librarians in the UK fell by 17 percent in the last five years, and the number of public library service points has also fallen, with 8 percent less mobile libraries this year, or that the British Library’s grant-in-aid has fallen in real terms by 46 percent over the last ten years. Perhaps the sort of figures that ought to be covered up.

In short, and incredibly useful tool which is sadly the last of its ilk, with the Museum Library and Arts Agency ceasing to support and fund it in future.

Issued at the same time is the “Survey of Library Services to Schools and Children in the UK 2005-2006” and the Regional Supplement. These are created from fairly massive surveys to individual authorities, with a quite phenomenal response rate of 82 percent from public library, and an even bigger response of 86% from schools library services. As with the Annual Statistics, the key findings make you open your eyes in amazement. One in eight LEA pupils in the UK attend schools with no formal schools library service provision. There are 5 percent less professional staff employed than last year, and it is only a fall in the number of pupils that makes the £1.4 million drop in total spent supportable.

Graeme Arnott (2006) commented last year in his review that “The point at which this compendium can also as a matter of course, support a ten-year analysis, is eagerly awaited”. Sadly, as with the Annual Statistics, the Museum Library and Arts Agency ceasing to support and fund it in future.

Steve ThorntonEditor, Performance Measurement and Metrics