ACADEMIC LAW LIBRARIES AND STATISTICS

by Beltz, Ed

Academic law libraries currently collect almost exclusively quantitative statistics related to number of volumes, circulation of materials, gate counts and interlibrary loans. This research used a web survey sent to all U.S. academic law library directors to gather information about the type of statistics collected in academic law libraries and to get suggestions about how the process might be improved and more relevant statistics gathered. One reason why all law libraries collect and report statistics is the American Bar Association’s Annual Questionnaire. The types of statistics currently collected in academic law libraries, even for this questionnaire, do not reflect the changes that technology has brought to the legal profession. This paper summarizes the issues and offers suggestions for the future.