Community College Library Benchmarks

The report presents detailed data and commentary on the budgetary and educational priorities of community colleges in the United States. The study includes but is not limited to spending plans for online information, books, eBooks, streaming video and other audio-visual materials, journals and other information vehicles. The report also gives detailed info on spending on group study rooms. In addition, the study looks at budgets, trends in compensation, use of student workers, role in remedial education and retention efforts, information literacy standards and graduation requirements, special provisions for distance and blended learners, trends in grant receipts and much more. Just a few of the report’s many findings are that: A 54.55 percent majority said the salaries and benefits for librarians had more or less declined in real terms over the past year 27.27% of libraries sampled offered a special orientation session specifically for students in blended or distance learning programs. Libraries sampled spent a mean of 15.26 hours per month on virtual reference duty. Mean spending for information accessed online was $65,649.79 in the 2015-16 academic year. Libraries in the sample spent a mean of $4,260 on books and other intellectual property from Amazon in the past year.