Gannett Releases Searchable Public Library Trends Database

Gannett News Service released a searchable database July 17 that compares trends affecting public library systems between 2002 and 2006. The analysis used data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) as well as statistics collected from state library data coordinators, compared figures for the some 9,200 library systems, and found that library visits increased by roughly 10% during that five-year period and that circulation of materials rose by 9%.

You can find the Gannett database and use it here.

What you need to know to explore this database
Use the database to search for trends affecting public library systems between 2002 and 2006. To get started, choose a state and then a county.

Select a library system from a list to learn more about changes in circulation of items such as books and videos, number of visits to the library, operating expenses and the number of computers for public use. The reports on each system include general demographic information about the counties where those libraries are located.

You can compare how your local library system with others across the country by looking at these reports:

» Public library systems with the highest circulation per capita
» Public library systems with the most Internet-capable public computers per capita
» Public library systems with the largest operating expenses per capita

Since this is a news service creating this database, it must be there to support news stories. I wonder if Gannett is choosing libraries as a story arc in 2008-9?

Stephen

"In web properties, Google leads the pack 140.2 million unique visitors, but Yahoo comes in a very close second at 140.1 million. This past April, Google's sites beat Yahoo's properties for the first time. Microsoft trails in third with 119 million. AOL is in 4th with 110 million and Fox Interactive rounds out the top 5 with 85 million. Here's the chart:"

"In ad networks, AOL's Platform-A takes the top spot, reaching 90% of American internet users. Yahoo comes in second, reaching 83% and Google comes in third with 81%. Here's the full list:"

I find this data interesting. In LibraryLand we spend so much discussion time focusing on Google and Amazon that we neglect to see some of the others that are setting expectations too. I find some surprises on the list. AOL is much higher than I would have estimated. And unique visitors as a measurement removes the odd ad sales success factor that draws attention to Google in particular. Also, some of the subject specific sites for weather and sports for example and retailer sites rank highly too. You'll also note that the top 10 sites are closer together than their ad sales revenue would predict. It wouldn't take much of a merger or two to change the game.

And I'll still bet that the number of unique visitors to all library sites in the US is higher!

Stephen

New numbers for blogging and blog readership
Tuesday, July 22, 2008 | Pew Internet Posts

"Blog reading

In our spring tracking survey we took two new measurements of blog reading, each of which captures a slightly different set of behaviors. Our first measure of blog readership uses the present-tense question, "Do you ever read someone else's online journal or blog?". In total, 33% of internet users (the equivalent of 24% of all adults) say they read blogs, with 11% of internet users doing so on a typical day.

Our second blog readership question is based on a slightly different question construction: the past-tense "Have you ever read someone else's online journal or blog?" This figure is consistently higher than the one discussed above; this is because its wording captures people who once read blogs but now do not for whatever reason. 42% of internet users (representing 32% of all adults) answer this question affirmatively.

In addition to serving as example of the power of question wording, there are also some interesting demographic differences in our two blog readership questions. For example, male and female internet users are equally likely to say that they do read other people's blogs (35% for men, 32% for women). However, among internet users men are more likely to say that they have read other people's blogs (48% vs. 38%). We suspect that this is due to the male-heavy nature of the initial blog readership population--men are generally heavily represented among the early adopters for most technologies, but women catch up over time. Due to the way the second question is worded, it captures some of those (largely male) early adopters who are not captured in the first question.

Blog creation

We only asked one question about blog creation, making these figures fairly straightforward. 12% of internet users (representing 9% of all adults) say they ever create or work on their own online journal or blog. For a majority of bloggers, working on their blog is not an every-day activity: 5% of internet users blog on a typical day. This question uses the same present-tense construction as the first blog readership question above."

These are higher percentages than I would have thought. And not because I don't think people are reading blogs. In fact I think more people read my staff through posting on this blog than publishing my book or writing my many print columns. I just think most people don't know when they're reading a blog. I've even had librarians tell me they never, if ever, read blogs! But when you ask if they read Drudge, Perez Hilton, Facebook or MySpace pages, or some popular blog enabled website in their discipline, etc. you can almost always get a yes. I think that most people don't know when they're reading a blog just because it looks like a webpage.

Stephen

Libraries are certainly finding many uses for the Wii and it's quite multi-generational too. There are educational uses too.

The latest “7 Things” document from Educause is on the Wii:

7 things you should know about... Wii

What is it?
Who’s doing it?
How does it work?
Why is it significant?
What are the downsides?
Where is it going?
What are the implications for teaching and learning?

As usual - loads of info crammed into a 2 page PDF.

Stephen

7 Ways Your Public Library Can Help You During A Bad Economy

It appears that the post was written by a librarian but the many comments are excellent and the users had even more ideas.

Continue promoting the benefits of libraries bfore you need to.

Stephen

2008 SALES, DEMOGRAPHIC AND USAGE DATA

65% of American households play computer or video games.
The average game player age is 35.
In 2008, 26% of gamers were over the age of 50.
The average age of the most frequent game purchaser is: 40
Women age 18 or older represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (33%) than boys age 17 or younger (18%).
13 is the average number of years adult gamers have been playing computer or video games.
59% of gamers play games with other gamers in person.
94% of the time parents are present at the time games are purchased or rented.
63% of parents believe games are a positive part of their children’s lives.
83% of the time children receive their parents’ permission before purchasing or renting a game.
Parents report always or sometimes monitoring the games their children play 88% of the time.

Loads more in the report.

I just love research survey data that challenges pre-conceived notions.

Stephen

"New research shows that as more scholarly and research journals are available online, researchers cite fewer, newer papers

Having research papers and other scholarly writing available online gives researchers access to a great deal of materials without having to enter a library. But how does this impact the new research that they produce? James Evans at the University of Chicago has studied this question and his conclusion is surprising--despite having greater access to scholarly materials, researchers are actually citing fewer papers. The papers they do cite tend to be newer and are likely to be cited by other researchers.

Thanks to the Internet, scientists now have access to an astonishing number of research papers, scholarly journals and other papers. But according to new research conducted by James Evans, a professor sociology at the University of Chicago, researchers are actually citing fewer papers than ever, and they tend to cite newer papers that are also cited by many of their peers. In this interview, James discusses what got him interested in the topic, how he conducted his research and what he believes are some of the implications of this trend.

The researcher's findings appear in the July 18 issue of Science magazine."

SOURCE: National Science Foundation,
www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111928&govDel=USNSF_51

Here's another argument for libraries to promote their digital vaults and make them more easily accessible and known. Research should be well-informed.

Stephen

Here is the abstract:

The Google Dilemma
James Grimmelmann, New York Law School

Abstract
Web search is critical to our ability to use the Internet. Whoever controls search engines has enormous influence on all of us; whoever controls the search engines, perhaps, controls the Internet itself. This short essay (based on talks given in January and April 2008) uses the stories of five famous search queries to illustrate the conflicts over search and the enormous power Google wields in choosing whose voices are heard on the Internet.

http://works.bepress.com/james_grimmelmann/19/

This article doesn't even address the issue of ads, so it's very interesting on many other levels.

Stephen

50 Ways to use Social Media, listed by Objective

1) Listening: Gleaning market and customer insight and intelligence

2) Talking: Engaging in a two way discussion to get your message out (and get messages in)

3) Energizing: Letting your customers tell your prospects on your behalf (viral, word of mouth)

4) Supporting: Getting your customers to self-support each other

5) Embracing: Building better products and services through collaboration with clients

Strategy, Training, and Planning

It's an interesting list of how to social networking and 2.0 technology to better understand users, customers

Another good list is from Chris Brogan:

50 Ways Marketers Can use Social Media to Improve Their Marketing

It seems a shame that so many libraries don't engage in enough active listening to their markets of users. The annual (or worse every 5 year) survey just isn't enough anymore, if it ever was.

Stephen

Check out this TechCrunch post and the great charts in it.

VC Deals In Charts (Q2 2008)—Exits? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Exits?

It's interesting to still see huge amounts of capital in the knowledge intensive sector of software, biotech, industrial/energy, medical, and media/entertainment. Apparently VC optimism for the sector is holding for now.

Stephen

O'Reilley Radar has a neat post showing the growth of Facebook by country and number of users by country over the last four weeks!

Stephen

"WASHINGTON - Each year, more than 1 billion people visit libraries to borrow books or videos, log onto the Internet or participate in various community programs.
But government support for libraries, and how much community residents use them, varies widely across the country. Gannett News Service analyzed data obtained from the federal government's National Center for Education Statistics for 2002 and 2005 and from individual states for 2006."

Highlight from the data are (chekc the full article for more):

- "Visits to libraries nationwide increased roughly 10 percent between 2002 and 2006 to about 1.3 billion."
- "The South lags the rest of the country in per-capita visits to libraries,"
- "Circulation ... increased nationwide about 9 percent, from 1.66 billion to 1.81 billion, between 2002 and 2006."
- "The number of Internet-capable computers soared 38 percent between 2002 and 2006 - from about 137,000 to nearly 190,000."
- "Nationally, library spending on day-to-day costs such as staffing and materials was $31.65 per person in 2005. The District of Columbia, and local governments in Ohio and New York topped the list, spending at least $50 per capita. Local governments in Mississippi, West Virginia, Arkansas and Tennessee spent the least - less than $17."

Lots of good stuff here. And libraries always show increases during difficult economic times.

Stephen

Stages of Personal Learning Networks Adoption by Jeff Utecht

http://www.thethinkingstick.com/?p=652

"Stage 1 Immersion: Immerse yourself into networks. Create any and all networks you can find where there are people and ideas to connect to. Collaboration and connections take off.

Stage 2 Evaluation: Evaluate your networks and start to focus in on which networks you really want to focus your time on. You begin feeling a sense of urgency and try to figure out a way to “Know it all.”

Stage 3 Know it all: Find that you are spending many hours trying to learn everything you can. Realize there is much you do not know and feel like you can’t disconnect. This usually comes with spending every waking minutes trying to be connected to the point that you give up sleep and contact with others around you to be connected to your networks of knowledge.

Stage 4 Perspective: Start to put your life into perspective. Usually comes when you are forced to leave the network for awhile and spend time with family and friends who are not connected (a vacation to a hotel that does not offer a wireless connection, or visiting friends or family who do not have an Internet connection).

Stage 5 Balance: Try and find that balance between learning and living. Understanding that you can not know it all, and begin to understand that you can rely on your network to learn and store knowledge for you. A sense of calm begins as you understand that you can learn when you need to learn and you do not need to know it all right now."

Stephen

SLA at the Tippng Point

Stephen