Primary Research Group has published Survey of Academic Libraries, 2012-13 Edition, ISBN 1-57440-197-1.

This 136-page report presents data from 110 American academic libraries about the state of their strategic thinking on a myriad of issues including: use of e-books and e-book readers, development of audio-visual resources, digitization of special collections, conference attendance and library staff training, views of open access, technology center development policies, use of cloud computing and inventory tracking technologies and many other issues.

The report presents detailed data on trends and spending plans in the following areas: capital spending, salaries/benefits and hiring, use of student labor, e-books and traditional books, audio-video, journals and periodicals, online databases, library instructional technology, tablet computers and e-book readers, and many other areas. Data is broken out by size and type of academic library and for public and private institutions.

Just a few of the many findings from this report are:

• Public school libraries spent an average of $340,302 each on print and electronic scholarly journal subscriptions in 2010-11, or nearly six times that of private libraries
• 25 percent of libraries have purchased e-book readers, iPads, or other such devices for patrons to read e-books
• Between 2011 and 2012, academic libraries increased spending on online content and information by a mean of 10.09 percent
• 62.37 percent of libraries say that salaries and benefits for their librarians have declined in real terms over the past year
• Just 5.5 percent of libraries have received grant support from alumni within the past year
• The average public school library anticipates spending $129,253 on traditional print books in the 2012-13 academic year, while the average private school library will spend just $36,015 during that time
• Including purchases made from Amazon and Alibris, libraries in the sample spent a mean of $20,725 on books purchased from online vendors in 2011-12

The study is available in print and PDF format for $92.00. Site licenses are offered at $199.00. To view a table of contents, list of questions and participants, and sample data, or to order a copy of the report, please visit our website.