This article announces the project’s Millennium Report. Funded by DG13 under FP4, Libecon2000 has been described here and on its own website [libecon2000.org] where statistics on the libraries of 29 European countries are found, constituting an indispensable resource for policymakers and others with an interest in libraries at the European level. This has been achieved with the assistance of EBLIDA, IFLA, UNESCO and colleagues throughout Europe. During 2000, we will add one more year of data and also [by the time this article appears!] produce the Millennium Report, evaluating in full the main trends and lessons from the financial and statistical data.

Libecon2000 ensures that data is recent , formulated to a common standard, validated and grossed up in appropriate cases to produce valid trend lines. Financial data is standardised on the Euro to allow comparisons between countries and over time. The website provides quick and easy access to the data and to the sources. Besides providing a tool for research, monitoring, benchmarking and comparison, the project has impacted on the revision of ISO2789 [library statistics] and influenced a number of countries to adopt ISO2789 or to carry out surveys for the first time or in an improved format.

The Millennium Report and the website cover Central and Eastern Europe, the EFTA countries and the European Union and all library sectors- schools, higher [tertiary] education, national, public, special [broken down for the first time into sub-sectors] and other major non-specialised. For the sake of brevity, comment is here restricted mainly to the public library and tertiary education sectors. For details and for the full text, please visit the website.

OPERATIONAL TRENDS [ALL SECTORS]

Staff
We estimate that 374,000 staff are employed in libraries, an increase of 3.7 % since 1991. This increase is weighted towards the professional staff who increased by 4.9 % over the period. The increase in Trained staff occurs mostly in EU States.

Whereas the number of trained librarians in all sectors of libraries (206,000) is higher than previous estimates for the mid-1990’s (175,800 for 1991), the number of other support staff is substantially lower. Proportionately the returns for ‘Other Staff’ are appreciably lower in the CEE than in the EU.

The trends in annual additions to stock vary between sectors. National libraries report growth in annual additions in books and audio-visual materials. Public libraries book acquisitions fell 1991 – 1995 but have since stabilised, while their audio-visual materials have increased steadily. With a large increase in the population served by Tertiary Education, so have their book acquisitions grown hugely.

Use and users
The count of Registered Members increased in total by 10.5% from 126 million to 139 million. As this count includes people using several libraries the proportion it represents out of the total population (484 million) – 29 per cent – is disappointingly low. But the trend is moving upwards.

Modernisation
Overall total estimates show that workstations for users increased more than fourfold from 74,000 in 1991 to 310,000 in 1998. Numbers of CD ROMs went up exponentially during the second half of the period, from an estimated 456,000 in 1991 to 2,500,000 in 1998. The Percentage of Catalogue Records Automated is estimated to have risen from 36 to 46 per cent.

There has been greatly increased activity in Tertiary Libraries and lack of growth – overall - in the Public Library sector, with modest growth in National Libraries. The obvious expectation from this is that levels of expenditure have increased more in the Tertiary sector than in others. Here we look at the situation overall.

While Expenditure on staff has increased at an average rate, expenditure on conventional materials has increased at a lower rate. There is a dramatic 67 per cent increase in expenditure on Electronic Materials, heavily concentrated in the Tertiary and Special Libraries sectors though Special Libraries are better represented in these statistics than ever. Nonetheless, the 1998 results show Electronic Information still at only 15 per cent of total materials expenditure, confirming the dominance of conventional materials.

Perhaps the most surprising revelation in this set of statistics lies in the ‘Income Items’. The magnitude of the increase in Fees & Charges – 70 per cent – is impressive, and the pattern is virtually universal across all countries. At this strength this is a new trend.

TERTIARY EDUCATION SECTOR

PUBLIC LIBRARIES SECTOR

Over the seven years service points have decreased by 18 per cent. This average is much influenced by the position in Poland (decrease from 10,300 to 3,565. But most countries show decreases between 8 and 15 per cent.

General conclusions are as follows:

• There is still a huge difference in the scale of public library operations between countries which have had a well-resourced public library service for many years and those without this historical tradition.
• There are some countries developing their public libraries from a low base showing significant increases since 1991 and others with no apparent development. Many have a long way to go to approach the activity levels accepted as normal elsewhere.
• There are obvious connections between high levels of Stock, Loans and Additions to Stock – which can be studied in the statistical database
• So far, initiatives to develop networking, IT and the Internet in public libraries have apparently not diminished the take up of traditional services, except possibly in the UK

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