Academic Library Benchmarks 2022-23

Academic Library Benchmarks 2022-23

The mean was 16.15% with a range of 0 to 100 and a median of 10%. Most tele-work was done by library staff at doctoral and research universities; at research universities, a mean of 27.14% of staff time was spent working from home or other remote location. Library size mattered too; for libraries with more than 8 full time staff members, nearly 30% of work was being done remotely.The study presents detailed benchmarking data from 55 academic libraries detailing their recovery from the pandemic, its continuing impact, and their spending plans for content/materials, staff and salaries, and much more. The report also looks closely at how the new inflationary environment is impacting libraries and how it is affecting their spending on salaries and materials.

The report has a great deal of highly specific benchmark data enabling its end users to find and deploy detailed metrics. Some of the data points included are: number of visitors to the library pre and post the intensive phase of the pandemic; use of various communications programs such as Zoom, WebEx. Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts and many others; current policies on masking and social distancing compared to policies in the most intense phase of the pandemic; percentage of librarian time spent working remotely; trends in personnel budgets and salaries, including recent and expected changes in librarian salaries; hiring plans; budgets and nature of changes in budget allocations; economic outlook for the parent organization; economic outlook for the library; recent and expected spending on content and then specific data for particular content forms: print books, eBooks, print journals, ejournals, databases, audio visual spending, magazines and newspapers; recent and expected spending on interlibrary loan operations – and more.