Mean Total Operating Expenditures, by Quartiles at Public Libraries, 1990-2002

Abstract

Total operating expenditures at the nation's libraries, as indicated by the experience of the five groups in the "1990" data, increased over the period and kept ahead of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index.

Charts

There are two charts and one table reporting the results of an analysis of the total operating expenditures (TOTOPEXP) by the groups of libraries. The first chart shows the mean values by the size groups and the expenditures rise for each of the groups and this view is confirmed by the actual data below. Note that the chart's vertical axis is nearly logarithmic where $100,000, $1,000,000, and $11,000,000 are equidistant. The height of this axis represents the amount of dollars, then, is not constant so that the differences between the smaller groups are exaggerated and the differences between these libraries and the larger groups are minimized. The smaller libraries are so close together that the graph would not otherwise be clear. Differentiating the smaller groups is particularly important in the second graph below which deals with taking into account changes in the value of dollars over time.

Note that the vertical axis is not registering values evenly. Given the fact that the lower three quartiles are so close to each other, a consistent axis makes distinguishing between them difficult.

Note that the vertical axis is not registering values evenly. Given the fact that the lower three quartiles are so close to each other, a consistent axis makes distinguishing between them difficult. The lines on the chart are both solid and dashed and come in a variety of colors. The solid lines indicate the nominal (that is, reported) dollars and the dashed line indicates the calculated constant 1990 dollars. So, the first quartile libraries figures are presented in a solid green line and the constant 1990 dollars in a dashed green line.

A problem with using any currency is that its value changes over time and to gain an accurate idea of what effects inflation has had to library budgets, we need to take inflation into account. There are difficulties with this kind of analysis such as the fact that different libraries spend money in different ways and in different places and the effect of the decline in the value of the dollar varies with those different ways and different places. What has been done here is to use the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to discount each libraries' expenditures by year to create a constant 1990 dollar value for each year. Then the mean of this constant value is plotted with the same data we see on this first chart. There are other indices that might be use but the CPI one has the advantage of being reasonable, explicit, and understood. Roughly, the decline in the value of the CPI from 1990 to 2002 was 27% and library budgets increased by an amount greater than that as can be seen by the fact that the dotted line representing the calculated constant 1990 dollar in 2002 is greater than the value of each group's expenditure in 1990.

Data

The chart summarizes these values:

Conclusions

The total dollars expended by libraries in this dataset increased over the period and the increases were sufficient to overcome the effects of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index. The decline in the value of the dollar as measured by the Consumer Price Index over the period was about 27% and in each of the columns headed by "$ Expenditures / CPI" the change in mean dollars expended was greater than 27%. The smaller libraries expended fewer added dollars over the period but did better as measured by percent increase in absolute and constant dollars. As the size of the library groups increases, the dollar amounts increase and percentage of growth in expenditures decreases. There are better ways to analyze this relationship but they will come after this first look at the data.

This table has per cent changes in both expenditure figures for 1990-2002 and from 2001-2002. The latter interval was added after seeing the drop in staffing figures in the first quartile libraries in 2001-2002 both here and here. The decline did not come from declining budgets.

NCES estimates in 1990 that the total expenditures per capita were $16.38¹ and there is a breakdown by size of population served so that the figures vary from $12.16 (1,000-2,499 population) to $19.08 (500,000-999,999). The comparable average figure for 1991 is $17.83 with a range of $14.25 (1,000-2,499) to $20.80 (500,000-999,999)². The N is given as 9,050 for number of libraries and the response for this question is 96.4 or about 8,724. It appears this figure is also based on the duplicated population also. In fact, I find no mention of unduplicated population in the 1991 E.D Tabs. For the year 2001, the total expenditures per capita is $27.64 and is based on the unduplicated population. The range for this year is $23.77 (2,500-4,999) to $34.40 (500,000-999,999)³. Given the change in the method of calculating population, a percent change between the two periods would be based on non-comparable numbers.

Notes

¹ U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Public Libraries in the US.: 1990. E.D. Tabs, June 1992. p. 46. There is a disclaimer that this estimate may be low because of nonresponses.

² U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Public Libraries in the US.: 1991. E.D. Tabs, April 1993. p. 90. There is the disclaimer that this estimate may be low because of nonresponses.

³ U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Public Libraries in the United States: Fiscal Year 2001. E.D. Tabs, June 2003. p. 73. Nonresponses are imputed.

November 19, 2004