Public library expenditure in Europe: Indicators and Calculators

This article considers indicators in library statistics and the need for calculators to be used by politicians and policy-makers. It presents the indicators and the calculators re­lated to library expenditure used by Rete delle Reti, an Italian association for libraries. The three indicators are library expenditure as per thousand of gross domestic product (GDP), library expenditure as per thousand of government expenditure, and library expenditure as a percentage of expenditure for cultural services. Three calculators al­low each European library to calculate indicators at local, regional, or national level and compare them with a range of European indicators related to library expenditure. The first indicator – library expenditure as per thousand of gross domestic product – assesses the role of libraries in the national community and whether they are con­sidered main actors in the construction of a sustainable, democratic, and equal soci­ety. It shows whether, and to what extent, governments are committed to supporting libraries. The second indicator – library expenditure as per thousand of government expenditure – evaluates how important libraries are in public policy and how relevant they are in the provision of public goods and services. This indicator can be used at the regional/municipal level to assess the relevance of public libraries to local politicians. The third indicator – library expenditure as a percentage of expenditure for cultural services – is more qualitative. It evaluates cultural engagement at the local level and the role the libraries play here. All indicators/calculators conform to the COFOG (Clas­sification of the Functions of Government methodology), adopted by OECD (Organisa­tion for Economic Co-operation and Development), and Eurostat (European Statistical Office). We hope that many libraries and, in particular, all agencies producing nation­al-level library statistics in Europe will adopt these indicators/calculators in their daily practices.