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ARL Statistics 2012–2013 Published

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ARL Statistics 2012–2013

ARL has released the ARL Statistics 2012–2013, the latest in a series of annual publications that describe the collections, staffing, expenditures, and service activities of ARL’s 125 member libraries. Of these, 115 are university libraries (16 in Canada and 99 in the US); the remaining 10 are public, governmental, and nonprofit research libraries (1 in Canada, 9 in the US).

The 2012–2013 ARL Statistics survey utilized a revised questionnaire, which was finalized in 2011–2012 after an extensive review process led by the Task Force on Reviewing the ARL Statistics, the ARL Annual Salary Survey, and the ARL Supplementary Statistics. The revised survey is designed to make the data more useful, relevant, and easy to collect. The new ARL Statistics survey strikes a balance between keeping pace with the rapidly changing environment in research libraries and codifying the evolution of the 21st-century research library.

ARL libraries are a relatively small subset of libraries in North America, but they account for a large portion of academic library resources in terms of assets, budgets, and the number of users they serve. The total expenditures of all 125 member libraries in 2012–2013 were almost $4.4 billion; of that, $3.3 billion was spent by the 115 university libraries and slightly more than $1 billion by the nonuniversity libraries.

ARL has collected and published annual statistics for its member libraries since 1961–1962, expanding upon the work of James Gerould, who collected this information first at the University of Minnesota and later at Princeton University. The data he collected, covering the years 1907–1908 through 1961–1962, are now called the Gerould Statistics. The complete data series from 1908 through the present represents the oldest, most comprehensive, continuing library statistical series in North America.

Ordering Information

Digital Publication

ARL Statistics 2012–2013
Martha Kyrillidou, Shaneka Morris, and Gary Roebuck, comps. and eds.
2014 • 142 pages
ISBN 1-59407-936-6 • EAN 978-1-59407-936-8
$170 (free for ARL members)

The ARL Statistics Collection provides online access to the annual publications ARL Statistics, ARL Academic Health Sciences Library Statistics, and ARL Academic Law Library Statistics that have been published since 2006. The cost of IP access to this collection is $500 for nonprofit organizations and $750 for all others (free for ARL members).

Note: Purchase of the digital publication does not include access to the data set from the survey. Please see below for information about purchasing access to the ARL Statistics Analytics data set.

Print Publication

ISBN 1-59407-935-8 • EAN 978-1-59407-935-1 • ISSN 0147-2135
$170 ($85 ARL members)

Shipping and Handling

US: UPS Ground, $10/publication
Canada: UPS Ground, $15/per publication
International and Rush Orders: Call 301-362-8196 or e-mail arl@brightkey.net for quote.

Order online IP access to digital publication and order print copies from:

ARL Publications Distribution Center
PO Box 531
Annapolis Junction MD 20701-0531
Phone: 301-362-8196
Fax: 240-396-2479
E-mail: arl@brightkey.net

Payment by check, money order, MasterCard, or Visa is accepted. Make check or money order payable in US funds to the Association of Research Libraries, Federal ID #52-0784198-N.

Online Access to ARL Statistics Analytics

ARL Statistics Analytics provides access to the ARL Statistics data sets from 1908 through 2012–2013 for nonmember libraries, vendors, commercial parties, and others interested in accessing the final, verified ARL Statistics data through an interactive interface. (ARL member institutions enjoy free access to the analytics as a benefit of membership.) ARL Statistics Analytics subscribers can download the annual data in spreadsheet format, create graphs, generate summary statistics for all ARL libraries, and much more.

The ARL Statistics Analytics are separate from the digital ARL Statistics publications and subscriptions to the analytics do not include access to the publications. Also note that the ARL Academic Law Library Statistics and ARL Academic Health Sciences Library Statistics data sets are not included in the ARL Statistics Analytics.

The ARL Statistics Analytics subscription fee is $500 for nonprofit organizations and $750 for others (free for ARL members). Please contact stats@arl.org to subscribe to this service.

See also ARL Academic Health Sciences Library Statistics 2012–2013 Published and ARL Academic Law Library Statistics 2012–2013 Published.


The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 125 research libraries in the US and Canada. ARL’s mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at https://www.arl.org/.

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