Academic and special libraries, 2001

Libraries at universities and scientific colleges had more than half of the registered stocks of books and periodicals. College libraries had just over 15 per cent of the books and periodicals, while public special libraries had about 17 per cent. The national libraries had 11 per cent of stocks, while private special libraries accounted for just below 4 per cent. The total registered stock of books and periodicals represents a slight increase compared with last year. The data collecting systems have however changed and the statistics is therefore not directly to be compared with previous years.

Increasing visits

The number of registered visits to special and research libraries totalled just over five million in 2001. The visits increased by around 4 percent.

University and scientific colleges accounted for almost 54 per cent of these visits, while the college libraries had 42 per cent. Private special libraries had only 0.4 per cent of visits while the public special libraries had just below 2 per cent of these visits.

Average number of days available to users per year was 217 days, and average weekly opening hours in a normal week was 45 hours. Professional staff was present 76 per cent of this time.

Stable issues

Issues remained stable at special and research libraries. Around 3.9 million loans were made in 2001. Of these almost 600 000 were non-local loans, while 3.3 million were local loans. Non-local loans are loans between library systems under different administrative units.

Almost NOK 1 billion

Library expenditures totalled NOK 952 million in 2001. Just about 25 per cent were used for purchases of materials for the collections. Libraries at the universities and scientific colleges accounted for more than half of the amount spent on accessions.

Just over 1 900 employees were registered at the close of 2001 at the 352 library units covered by the statistics. More than half of these held professional positions. In total, they worked just over 1610 man-years, with professional employees accounting for 62 per cent of man-years.

The statistics for special and research libraries is compiled by Statistics Norway and has been collected in cooperation with the National Office for Research and Special Libraries.

Tables:

• Table 1 Special and research libraries. 2001 (Corrected 27 August 2002)
• Table 2 Special and research libraries. Books, periodicals, issues, loans, expenditure, persons employed and man-years. 2001 (Corrected 27 August 2002)
• Table 3 Special and research libraries. Visits, visitors, hours of opening and seats. 2001