Reading the highlights of the ACRL Academic Library Trends and Statistics Survey for 2021

Took a look at this article out of College and Research Libraries (CR&L) on the 2021 ACRL Academic Library Trends and Statistics Survey. I can only look at the highlights because you need to be subscriber to see more, which I am not. The article has a enough to get a basic picture of what is going on. 

This is a survey designed to help show how libraries have academic libraries have an impact in their institutions and show value to their users and stakeholders. Notice that this survey would cover part of the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey has a standard set of questions, but this edition also featured a set of additional questions specific to topics in library instruction and presentations to groups.

Some details with a bit of comment from me: 

• Data was collected from 1,533 libraries. The response rate was close to 42%. 
• The number of FTE (full time equivalent) librarians stayed stable over the past three annual surveys. However the number of FTE student workers went down by 40%. 
• In person reference transactions and library instruction declined. This is less surprising given the Hard Times and the pandemic. Like other campuses, we did have a period of campus closing down where we went fully virtual. It is 2023, and we are still not quite recuperating in terms of getting classes to come back into the library for instruction nor in terms of traffic in the building. 
• Virtual transactions and consultations went up. Also the survey found more libraries delivered services online. Given the Hard Times, that is not surprising either. We did our part to deliver more services online. 

To be honest, kind of nice to see some numbers, but there is nothing that is earth shattering so to speak. 

 

 

Reading ALA's "State of America's Libraries" 2023

I do not always read this report (link to ALA page, where you can get a summary and download the full PDF report, which I did save and read), but given the situation in the last few years, I took a look. After reading it, I see a lot of the usual feel good rhetoric about the nobility of our libraries, about their bravery in these Hard Times, and how they do more with less. Those are not necessarily new things, but they have been aggravated by current threats to our collections as well as to librarians. 

I am just going to quickly note a couple of things that caught my eye or made me react. You can click on the link above and read the full report or as much of it as you wish. The most useful part of the report are probably the various infographics and charts with information on book challenges, lists, and other issues. You can use some of those graphics to help promote the report as well as raising awareness overall. 

Some highlights then with a comment or two from me: 

From the executive director message: 

Librarians "found themselves contending with reduced funding and staffing, threats to personal safety in the form of bomb scares and to professional livelihoods from firings and job losses, and bills threatening to criminally charge librarians or defund libraries altogether for making certain materials available on their shelves or findable through reference services" (2). 

What often is happening is that some angry "Karen" from some terrorist astroturf group like "Moms for Liberty" throws a hissy fit, and then the administrators to keep the peace just fold. As P.Z. Myers writes, "That’s all it takes, one prude from the fascist group “Moms for Liberty” complains, and administrators instantly surrender." Not exactly the bravest of actions. The result is that these well organized Party of Stupid conservative Christofascists get emboldened when they see they can get away with some small challenge, try for a bigger one, and before you know it they get legislators to defund libraries. They were not challenged back early when they were small, and thus a lot of the mess we have now. 

From the 2022-2023 ALA President: 

"As trusted institutions, libraries are the last bastion of democracy that is truly inclusive and free" (3). 

Unless you happen to be in one of those communities who are happy to let their elected officials defund their libraries and threaten the safety of their librarians. But other than that, sure. Heck, even here in Kentucky the book challenges are on the rise. 

From the director of ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom: 

The rising numbers of challenges and book bans "are evidence of a growing, well-organized, conservative political movement whose goals include removing books addressing race, history, gender identity, sexuality, and reproductive health from America's public libraries and school libraries that do not meet their approval" (4). 

That is a polite way of saying a well-organized right wing Part of Stupid Christofascist bunch of bigots who more often than not have not even read the books they are challenging. Also ignores the fact that in many libraries the administrators flat out ignore their own book challenge procedures to appease them. So allowing them to escalate has led to the following: 

"Both school and public librarians are increasingly in the crosshairs of conservative groups during book challenges and subject to defamatory name calling, online harassment, social media attacks, and doxxing, as well as direct threats to their safety, their employment, and their very liberty" (4). 

This is the America we live in now. These are Hard Times to be a librarian and/or an educator for that matter.  

To be honest, the best part of the report that is really worth reading is the "Forward Momentum" article edited by Phil Morehart. It highlights some interesting and innovative things that some libraries are doing including a cellphone lending program, enhanced library cards for ID use, and lending utility wagons. 

The report is 18 pages long in PDF form. It is an ALA report, which means it focuses mainly on public libraries. For academic libraries, there is the ACRL Library Trends and Statistics Survey (latest out now is the 2021 edition, which I will look at later).