GENERAL LIBRARY STATISTICS

Resources and operations

	National libraries	Public libraries	University libraries	HE coll libraries
No. of inst/authorities	3	190	111	63
Number of libraries	3	4,657	644	89
Bookstock (millions)	27.0	128	83	7
Book Issues (millions p.a.)	1.6*	480	66	9
Seats	2,396	77,000	157,000	18,000
Online searches	-	-	34,000	8,000
Miles of shelving	803	-	-	-

	National libraries	Public libraries	University libraries	HE coll libraries
Professional librarians	988	6,388	3,040	374
1997-98 Total staff	2,903	25,938	9,807	1,003
1992-93 Professional librarians	882	7,278	2,270	423
1991-92 Total staff	2,843	27,823	5,270	1,127

* Items consulted in reading rooms, excl. SRIS (4 million)

Library expenditure

(£ millions sterling)

	National libraries	Public libraries	Univ & HE libraries
Staff	63	442	189
Books	10	91	42
Periodicals	4	7	57
A/V	-	14	4
Automated systems	-	22	12
On-line services	-	-	14
Overheads, premises etc	62	221	59
Total gross expenditure	138	797	377
Income	31	73	57
Total net expenditure	107	724	320

Library acquisitions

	National libraries	Univ & HE libraries	Public libraries
Copyright deposit items	820,000	218,000	0
Books	398,876	2,736,000	10,466,000
Books per member*	-	1.37	0.31
Current periodicals	176,042	556,000	59,000
Periodicals per member*	-	0.28	0.00
Audio-visual	65,339	130,000	1,344,000
A/V per member*	-	0.05	0.04

The Copyright Act (1911) requires publishers to deposit copies of books (including journals, magazines, maps etc.) with The British Library, the national libraries of Scotland and Wales, and university libraries at Oxford, Cambridge and Dublin.

* 'Members' are all appropriate members of institutions and, for public libraries, those in possession of a current reader's ticket.

The library profession by occupation

		Library Association		Institute of Information Scientists*		Total members**
		Chartered	Other	Full	Other
Public libraries		4,870	1,298	35	16	6,245
National libraries		429	349	in Govt.		778
Higher education		1,924	1,155	196	91	4,879
Further education		830	539
Schools		1,347	468	5	2	1,826
Industry/commerce		762	1,035	475	221	2,841
Medical/hospitals		511	402	63	29	1,051
Government depts. etc.		628	418	155	72	1,387
Independent consultants		197	57	251	117	806
Miscellaneous		127	126	205	95	703
Total		11,625	5,847	1,835	643	21,189
Overseas		676	517	111	33	1,409
Students/non-LIS		322	1,802	-	74	2,235
Unemployed/retired		3,475	1,000	-	-	4,475

* One third of IIS members are also members of the LA

Inter-library lending

	Inter-library loans received			Total items received	Unsatisfied requests abandoned	% Requests obtained for borrowers
	from libraries in Region	from BLDSC	from other libraries
London & South East*	76,947	56,469	13,116	146,532	10,015	93.6
South Western	57,332	118,060	21,645	197,037	10,320	95.0
West Midlands	10,733	84,788	20,365	115,886	4,217	96.5
East Midlands	10,420	92,368	17,644	120,432	10,225	92.2
Yorkshire & Humberside	18,231	127,176	21,438	166,845	8,341	95.2
North Western	24,918	125,118	15,753	165,789	14,548	91.9
Northern	12,787	36,333	10, 423	59,543	6,488	90.2
Wales	17,120	63,434	9,289	89,843	2,776	97.0
Scotland	21,272	146,005	13,891	181,168	11,676	93.9
Ireland (incl. Eire)	11,897	112,397	5,916	130,210	-	100.0
Total	261,657	962,148	149,480	1,373,285	78,606	94.6

1999 L.I.S.T. online: Public library statistics