Figure

IV-36b: Median Materials Costs, Purchases, and Expenditures for Member Institutions of the Association of Research Libraries, Academic Years 1986–2011 (Adjusted for Inflation)*

* Includes electronic resources from 1999 onward. Serials purchased and their unit cost are not presented due to a change in the way the Association of Research Libraries records serials. Adjustment for inflation made using the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) produced by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Source: Association of Research Libraries, “Expenditure Trends in ARL Libraries 1986–2012,” http://www.arl.org/focus-areas/statistics-assessment/statistical-trends.

This indicator relies on data collected by the Association of Research Libraries. The association’s current membership includes 123 of North America’s largest research libraries, 107 of which are located in the United States and 16 in Canada. The estimated unit cost of serial publications and the number of serials purchased are not included in the graph because the actual costs have become difficult to calculate given the proliferation of electronic serials that began in the late 1990s and the duplication of content in a variety of different access formats (print and electronic).

Back to Humanities Indicators