U.S. academic libraries reported wide differences in staffing, spending, collections, and use in 2023. The latest ACRL survey found an average of 36.2 full-time-equivalent (FTE) staff per responding institution, while average total expenditures excluding fringe benefits were $3,950,693. Collections were almost evenly split between physical and digital materials overall, but the balance varied sharply by institution type.
Contents
- Staffing and workforce
- Expenditures and budgets
- Collections and digital resources
- Circulation and library access
- Information services
- Interlibrary services
These figures come primarily from The State of U.S. Academic Libraries: Findings from the ACRL 2023 Annual Survey (ACRL report). The ACRL figures describe survey respondents, not a census of every U.S. academic library, and the report notes that respondent institution types are not proportionally representative of the full invited sample. Dollar figures exclude fringe benefits unless stated otherwise. Historical dollar amounts are inflation-adjusted to 2023 dollars.
Staffing and workforce
The average U.S. academic library reported 36.2 FTE staff in 2023, while the median reported 15.7 FTE. The gap between the average and median indicates that larger institutions substantially raise the overall average. Across the survey, libraries reported 192 degree-seeking student FTEs per library-staff FTE on average.
Staffing varied substantially by institutional category:
| Institution type | Average library-staff FTEs | Students per staff FTE |
|---|---|---|
| Associate’s colleges and two-year institutions | 11.4 | 375 |
| Baccalaureate colleges | 18.1 | 153 |
| Master’s colleges and universities | 21.9 | 230 |
| Doctoral universities | 98.0 | 170 |
| Other institutions | 11.9 | 163 |
Doctoral universities reported an average of 98.0 library-staff FTEs, compared with 11.4 at associate’s colleges and two-year institutions, 18.1 at baccalaureate colleges, and 21.9 at master’s colleges and universities. Other institutions, including special-focus and tribal institutions, reported 11.9 FTEs on average.
The student-to-staff measure also differed by category. Associate’s colleges and two-year institutions reported 375 students per library-staff FTE. The corresponding figures were 153 at baccalaureate colleges, 230 at master’s colleges and universities, 170 at doctoral universities, and 163 at other institutions.
Across all reported academic-library staff FTE, librarians represented 33.6%. Other professional staff represented 12.9%, student assistants represented 23.8%, and all other paid staff represented 29.6%.
Expenditures and budgets
Average total academic-library expenditures excluding fringe benefits declined across most of the inflation-adjusted series from 2015 through 2023. The average was $4,677,043 in 2015, $4,491,967 in 2016, $4,299,757 in 2017, and $4,185,949 in 2018, all in 2023 dollars. It rose to $4,358,588 in 2019, then measured $4,253,487 in 2020, $4,000,704 in 2021, $3,929,141 in 2022, and $3,950,693 in 2023.
The 2023 median was $1,112,184 in total expenditures excluding fringe benefits. As with staffing, the much higher average than median reflects a distribution that includes institutions with substantially larger budgets.
In 2023, staff salaries and wages accounted for 45.1% of total academic-library expenditures excluding fringe benefits. Materials and services accounted for 44.4%, while other operations and maintenance accounted for 10.5%.
The allocation differed for associate’s colleges and two-year institutions: 75.8% of total expenditures went to staff salaries and wages, and 19.0% went to materials and services. Ongoing subscription commitments represented 34.9% of total reported academic-library expenditures overall. For other institutions, including special-focus four-year institutions and law and medical schools, ongoing subscription commitments represented 45.1% of expenditures.
Collections and digital resources
Academic-library holdings were nearly balanced between formats in 2023. Physical materials represented 53.0% of reported collection holdings overall, while digital materials represented 47.0%.
The overall split masks large differences by institution type. Physical materials represented only 5.6% of holdings at associate’s colleges and two-year institutions. At baccalaureate colleges, digital materials represented 84.8% of holdings, and they represented 81.7% at master’s colleges and universities. At doctoral universities, physical materials represented 71.6% of holdings.
These measures describe the composition of reported holdings, not necessarily the number of items available to an individual student or the intensity with which each format was used. Collection mix and circulation should therefore be read as separate measures.
The collection figures also show why a single national format percentage has limited descriptive power. The overall 53.0% physical and 47.0% digital split sits between institution-level patterns that are much more concentrated. Associate’s colleges and two-year institutions reported a 5.6% physical share, meaning that digital materials represented the remaining 94.4% of their reported holdings. Baccalaureate colleges reported an 84.8% digital share, while master’s colleges and universities reported an 81.7% digital share. Doctoral universities reported a 71.6% physical share, leaving a 28.4% digital share within the reported holdings measure.
Those differences should not be read as a ranking of collection quality or as evidence that one format has replaced the other everywhere. The ACRL report presents survey measures for responding institutions, and its respondent institution types are not proportionally representative of the full invited sample. The percentages are best used to describe how reported collection holdings were distributed within the survey results for each category and year.
Circulation and library access
Average total academic-library circulation changed across the 2019–2023 period. It was 863,593 uses in 2019, 1,031,117 in 2020, 822,615 in 2021, 989,092 in 2022, and 620,488 in 2023.
The 2023 total was dominated by digital circulation. Physical items accounted for 1.6% of total reported circulation, while the average physical circulation was 9,977 uses per institution. The average digital circulation was 610,575 uses per institution. Baccalaureate colleges had the highest physical-circulation share, at 3.2% of total reported circulation.
The year-by-year figures should be kept in their original measurement periods. The 2019 average was 863,593 uses, followed by 1,031,117 in 2020 and 822,615 in 2021. The average reached 989,092 in 2022 before the reported 2023 figure of 620,488. These values are survey averages for the stated years; they are not a continuous count of one fixed panel of libraries. The figures also do not support an explanation for why the annual values changed, so the series should be reported as a pattern rather than assigned an unsupported cause.
Physical and digital circulation are likewise different measures within the total. The 2023 average of 9,977 physical uses per institution is not a count of physical holdings, and the 610,575 digital uses per institution is not a count of digital items. The physical-circulation share of 1.6% applies to total reported circulation, while the 3.2% figure applies specifically to baccalaureate colleges. Neither percentage should be generalized to every institution type.
Responding academic libraries also reported substantial in-person access in 2023. They recorded an average of 250,681 annual visits through their doors and an average of 9,270 visits in a typical week. These are averages among responding libraries and should not be interpreted as a national count of visits.
The circulation series and the format shares measure reported uses, while the visits figures measure physical entry. A library can therefore have a high level of digital circulation alongside a separate pattern of in-person access.
Information services
In 2023, academic libraries reported an average of 3,675 annual reference transactions per institution. They also reported an average of 397 annual consultations and 1,342 annual virtual-reference services per institution.
Reference transactions represented 77.3% of reported information services to individuals. Consultations represented 8.1%, while transactions and consultations that could not be separated represented 14.6%.
The categories are not interchangeable. Reference transactions, consultations, and virtual-reference services describe different service measures, while the percentage breakdown describes reported information services to individuals. Keeping those definitions distinct avoids treating every contact as the same type of interaction.
Interlibrary services
The National Center for Education Statistics provides a separate fiscal-year view of academic-library resource sharing. In fiscal year 2023, Title IV degree-granting institutions reporting more than $100,000 in library expenditures recorded 10,261,424 interlibrary services in total. The figures come from the NCES table Expenditures and number of interlibrary services at Title IV degree-granting institutions.
Within that same IPEDS institution population, libraries provided 5,327,757 loans and documents to other libraries and received 4,933,667 loans and documents from other libraries. These are totals, not averages, and they do not represent all academic libraries.
The provided IPEDS population is narrower than the ACRL survey population because it is limited to Title IV degree-granting institutions reporting more than $100,000 in library expenditures. Its fiscal-year 2023 totals should therefore be used as a resource-sharing measure for that defined group, not as a direct estimate of every U.S. academic library.