Original Question (10/17/11):

Bruce Pomerantz (MN)

Here, to me, is a conundrum.

The public library survey publication in the back provides various per capita or per 1000 or per 5,000 measurements with state data and rankings.

Print materials per capita does not change with the advent of e-books.

However, audio materials and video materials per 1,000 population are listed. These calculations were predicated on the assumption of physical materials and that most materials were available to everyone either through ILL or, rarely, only on-site.

Now we have Overdrive and its competitors. If the state licenses Overdrive, then I would say it’s clear cut to include the number of titles licensed in the state calculation. But, what do we include and exclude if a consortium licenses the materials and the materials are available only to the consortium’s library members card holders?  To create an oversimplified example: I have two consortiums within the state of a population of 2, each consortium having one of the people. If Consortium A licenses 1 audio from Overdrive and this one item is the entire audio collection, do I have .5 titles/capita or do I ignore the licensed item and have 0 items/capita? Or, do we now have to abandon per capita measurements because only physical items can be counted and that would be misleading?

SDC Comments:

Kathy Sheppard (SC)

I have been dealing with umpteen variations of this question among the librarians in my own state, over and over (and over) again. Everyone has a different point of view! It is impossible to get consensus without an in-depth discussion and some understanding of the long term implications.  Doesn’t this need to get into the “Data Element Life Cycle” -- unless it is too late for this year?

Edie Huffman (IN)

I agree; it is something we do need to talk about, IMHO.

Michael Golrick (LA)

I expect that our friends at IMLS now have this issue on their list.

I have another question about the implementation of the new data element on # of hours open. What is the data being asked? I had collected hours per week (per outlet) and number of weeks. I submitted that originally, but got an edit check that made me think that they were looking for total # of hours per year.

Any further discussion on any of these topics for me will now be “ABF – After Book Festival” (see my extended signature file below). You are all more than welcome to come to our outstanding Book Festival next weekend (no LSU game), and if you want to volunteer, trust me, I can find a place for you!