CAUL statistics

Library management is increasingly relying on statistics to demonstrate performance or strategic direction. CAVAL collects and publishes the annual library statistical data (ex. staffing, expenditures, library services and library characteristics) for a number of groups of libraries. This enables them to create historical collections of data that can assist in management decisions, peer comparison, benchmarking and in making submissions for grant monies.

CAUL Statistics are produced annually from data supplied by CAUL (and CONZUL) institutions. Statistics were originally published in 1953 in the "News Sheet" of the University and College Libraries Section, Library Association of Australia. Data were recorded in "The Red Book". CAVAL has managed the collection and compilation of the data since 1992. The data were published each year as the September supplement of Australian Academic and Research Libraries until this was discontinued in 2008.

An interactive online site (http://statistics.caul.edu.au) was launched in 2004. The data "for publication" includes a range of data provided by some institutions only; this data is not considered to be benchmarkable, and hence is included as optional.

Since 2014, the current five years of data have been restricted to member libraries only (after logging in). External users may obtain some subsets of this data via the Statistics Overview Page (http://www.caul.edu.au/caul-programs/caul-statistics/statistics-summary-current)