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Average Estimated Share of Library-Materials Budget Spent on Digital and Print at t 4-Year Public and Private Nonprofit Colleges, 2010-16

Almanac 2017 August 13, 2017

Online or digital journals and databases, along with e-books, consumed more than 70 percent of academic libraries’ materials budgets in 2016, library directors estimated, compared with less than 60 percent in 2010. More money was spent on print books than on e-books in 2016, but the spending gap between the two formats narrowed over the six-year period.

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Materials	2016	2013	2010
Online/digital journals and databases	61.5%	59.5%	51.6%
Print books	13.7%	15.7%	19.4%
E-books	9.5%	6.8%	4.8%
Print journals	8.9%	12.4%	17.1%
All other items	6.5%	5.8%	7.2%

Note: Data for 2016 are based on a survey of library deans and directors at four-year public and private nonprofit colleges taken in the fall of 2016, which gathered 722 responses. Percentages may not sum to 100 because of rounding. More data are at www.sr.ithaka.org/publications/us-library-survey-2016.

Source: Wolff-Eisenberg, Christine. “Ithaka S+R US Library Survey 2016"</small></p>

A version of this article appeared in the August 18, 2017, issue.

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