61st IFLA General Conference - Conference Proceedings - August 20-25, 1995

Section on Statistics

Annual Report 1994

Geneieve Boisard

Bibliothèque Sainte Geneiève
10 Place du Panthéon
75005 Paris
France
Fax: (33-1) 40517358

is Chair of the Section on Statistics.

Michael Netzer

Mairie de Paris
Bureau des Bibliothèques
6 rue François-Miron
75004 Paris
France
Fax: (33-1) 44788055

is Secretary.

Standing Committee and Section Membership

The Standing Committee has 10 members from five countries; Section registration stands at 61.

Projects

Directory of Statistics Agencies

Ludmila Kozlova (Russia) leads the project which should be completed by the end of 1995. Reminders were sent to institutions not replying to the first questionnaire. At the time of the Havana Confere nce, replies had been received from 133 countries, some of which were not recorded in the UNESCO Statistical Yearbook or were not IFLA members.

IFLA Manual on Performance measurement in University Libraries

The Manual, nearing completion by the Section of University Libraries and scheduled to be published by IFLA in 1995, has been translated by colleagues at the Library of the University of Toulouse in France. The French version will be amended upon completion of the English version. It is not certain how the French edition will be published: by IFLA or by the University of Toulouse with the IFLA l ogo. As for the Manual, some parts of it were tested by French university libraries, in particular the quality of catalogues and the availability of documents (speed in cataloguing, time spent in com municating).

National Statistics Used as Performance Measurement

U. Hofmann (Germany) compared national German statistics with the performance measurements prepared by ISO, noting that they are more concerned with library production rather than with the user's dem and. Some elements, however, were the same: population reached; visits per head of primary users; opening hours; stock turnover rate; loans per head of primary users group; materials usage rate. Libr aries can calculate some date more easily, such as the number of seats related to the number of potential users or to catalogue use. Other data must be obtained by using a sample population. The proj ect could be used as comparison with the above-mentioned Manual and with similar work undertaken by the European Commission.

Statistical Sources about Prices of Publications

Frederick Lynden (USA) has continued work on the project, and submitted his findings for discussion of the Standing Committee during the Havana Conference. Final results will be presented during the Istanbul Conference.

Future Project

The Standing Committee agreed to set up a small Working Group to study statistics on electronic media. The work would be coordinated by Jan Bruusgaard (Norway).

The Section issued its Newsletter (ISSN 1022-9906) once in March 1994.

Future Conferences

Istanbul 1995

The open meeting of the Section will focus on performance measurement in academic libraries. Four presentations will be given: on the ISO standard project; on European studies; on the IFLA Manual; an d on the relations between performance measurements in pubic libraries and in university libraries. Reports on completed projects will also be given. The Section also plans to organize a "browsing se ssion" at which participants could compare statistics from different countries.

Beijing 1996

The Section will hold a joint session with the Round Table on Management to focus on the way to present statistics more clearly and effectively to help in the decision-making process and to improve p ublic relations/promotion of libraries.

Havana Meeting

The Section held an open session with the theme, "Statistics in Latin America".

Las estadísticas en las instituciones de informacíon en Cuba: un analisis de la situación actual
by MODESTO ZALDIVAR COLLAZO

Abstract
The paper presents an overview of the three information systems which currently exist, one for public libraries headed by the Department of Culture, one for scientific and technical sciences headed b y the Department of Science, Technology and the Environment, and one for school libraries headed by the Department of Education. Data from the three systems are coordinated and analyzed by a central institution which also supplies international statistics.

Library Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean
by UNESCO DIVISION OF STATISTICS