Gary Pattillo is reference librarian at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, e-mail: pattillo@email.unc.edu

Academic library instructional services reached 6.8 million students in 2018

Academic libraries delivered more than 382,000 presentations to nearly 6.8 million attendees—a number greater than the population of Indiana—during the 2018 fiscal year, according to responses submitted to the 2019 ACRL Academic Library Trends and Statistics Survey by more than 1,500 libraries. Libraries at doctoral-granting institutions provided an average of 481 presentations, followed by master’s colleges and institutions with an average of 218 presentations, community colleges with an average of 172 presentations, and baccalaureate colleges with an average of 116 presentations.

2019 ACRL Academic Library Trends and Statistics Survey Summary Data Tables, https://www.acrlmetrics.com/index.php?page_id=35 (retrieved September 29, 2020). U.S. Census Quick Facts Population Estimates July 1, 2019 (V2019), https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/IN (retrieved September 29, 2020).

Academic libraries provided more than 5.8 million ILL items in 2018

More than 5.8 million interlibrary loan (ILL) items were provided to users during fiscal year 2018, according to data reported to the 2019 ACRL Academic Library Trends and Statistics Survey by 1,655 academic libraries. Two-thirds of the total was reported by libraries at doctoral-granting institutions, which also had the highest average number of ILL received at 9,564. Libraries at master’s colleges and institutions provided 20 percent of the total with an average of 2,300 items, baccalaureate colleges provided 12 percent with an average of 1,946 items, and associate’s colleges provided 1 percent with an average of 306 items.

2019 ACRL Academic Library Trends and Statistics Survey Summary Data Tables, https://www.acrlmetrics.com/index.php?page_id=35 (retrieved October 1, 2020).

WorldCat

Libraries grew WorldCat to 482 million records and 2.9 billion library holdings.

OCLC, “OCLC Annual Report 2019-2020,” November 30, 2020, https://www.oclc.org/en/annual-report/2020/home.html (retrieved November 30, 2020).

Newsroom layoffs

More than 11,000 newsroom jobs were lost due to layoffs in the first six months of 2020. That is more than the total number of newsroom layoffs during the entire previous year (~9,500).

Sara Fischer, “More than 11,000 Newsroom Jobs Have Been Lost in the First 6 Months of 2020,” Axios Media Trends, July 21, 2020, https://www.axios.com/newsroom-layoffs-2020-c509fb2d-ef58-4fcf-bcdd-3d40022a7a39.html (retrieved November 30, 2020).

Social media users

Reddit said it averaged 52 million daily active users in October 2020, up 44 percent from the same month a year earlier. Facebook said it averaged 1.82 billion daily active users in September 2020. Twitter said it averaged 187 million monetizable daily users in the third quarter of 2020.

Sahil Patel, “Reddit Claims 52 Million Daily Users, Revealing a Key Figure for Social-Media Platforms,” Wall Street Journal, December 1, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/reddit-claims-52-million-daily-users-revealing-a-key-figure-for-social-media-platforms-11606822200 (retrieved December 1, 2020).

Instagram

“Roughly four-in-ten Americans (37 percent) say they have ever used Instagram. Young adults, women, and Hispanic Americans are among the most likely groups to say they use Instagram. Roughly seven-in-ten U.S. teens (72 percent) say they use the site.”

Brooke Auxier, “8 Facts about Americans and Instagram,” Pew Research Center blog, October 21, 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/21/8-facts-about-americans-and-instagram (retrieved December 1, 2020).