Libraryblog

The report has been elaborated by the Department of Researches and Analysis of the Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruipérez and the Subdepartment of Librarian Cooperation.
It was made from the data in the statistical server about public libraries, supported by the Department of Culture.
The report proves a constant improvement, in quantity as in cuality, of the Public Libraries services in Spain during the fisrt years of the XXI century. More than 100 libraries are opened every year, reachin the 4.619 service points in 2003. Despite that, the improvement is not uniform in the whole country, and the growing of the number of libraries is being limited by two facts: the high rate (by 40%) of buildings with less than 100m2 of surface, and less of 20 hours of opening a week (by 47%).
The availiable holdings have also increased in those years, to reach 50.2 millions of availiable documents, by 1.18 books per inhabitant. The collections are still basically composed by printed books (by 92%), although in most of the libraries we can see a growing in the number of other materials as audiovisual and electronic on-line resources.
There were 20 Spanish counties that had more than 1.5 books per inhabitant, (thas is the UNESCO recommendation). In the autonomous regions that rate was reached in Navarra, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Asturias and País Vasco, in 200. Now, if the collections increase, is because of the annual acquisitions (by 3.2 millions of volumes in 2003, by 81% of those were books), and because of the absence of renewal of the holdings.
The population’s response to the improvement of the librarian services, specially in cities and villages where the libraries have been modernized and that are near of european standards, has been translated in a greater number of visitors and users.
Public libraries registered more than a million of citizens, reachin 8.5 millions of users, one of each five people in 2003. During that year, pubic libraries had 76.5 millions of visits (by 23.1% more than in 2002), and they made 44.7 million of loans (by 23.4% more than in 202).
The report, that gives data by counties, emphasizes over Castilla-La Mancha, and Castilla y León, as they has the highest rate of loans per inhabitant, doubling the Spanish average, that was by 1.05 loans per inhabitant in 2003. Among the eleven counties with more than a million of inhabitants, only Barcelona and Asturias overcomed the national average, with 1.83 and 1.53 loans per inhabitant respectivelly.
Despite of that, the worrying data are in the chapter about expenditures in public libraries, and how they are funded. Although the average expenditures per inhabitant has gone from 4.27€ in 2000, to 6.36€ in 2003, important imbalances can be seen. So, the total expenditure per inhabitant was by 10.06€ in Castilla-La Mancha in 2003, overcoming in 8€ the figure for Cataluña, Madrid, País Vasco y Castilla y León. In the other hand, the figure for Aragón, La Comunidad Valeenciana, Canarias, Murcia and Andalucian was under 5€ per inhabitant, being under the 4€ for Baleares and Galcia.
The improvement of the staff and in the growth of the basic expenditureshas had an influence in the moderated growth of the investments in libraries has had an influence in. At the same time, the budget for acquisitions become stabilized. Of the 254.4 millions of Euros, that summed the total expenditures in public libraries in Spain in 2003, by 70.4 %, cames from funds of local corporations, a percentage that has been growing in the current years (it was by 67.3% in 2002, and by 62.5% in 2001. It makes sense if we think that it is a local public service, and the City Councils are the holders of about 96% of the Spanish public libraries. The economical contribution of the Comunidades Autónomas has decreased from 35% in 2000, to 29.7% in 2003. The funding in the Comunidades Autónomas goes (by 85.1%) to those libraries that are responsibles of their own management (only by 3.6% of the Spanish public libraries), and the rest of the budget is allocated for the City Councils to give the services they have to.
In the figure for the local corporations, the involvement of the Diputaciones provinciales, cabildos and consejos insulares in the funding of public libraries, is so limited. In Spain, the diputaciones prvided 8.7% of the expenditures generated for public libraries in 2003, but it is located noy many counties, by 75% of all that, is only for Barcelona. The others, with quite smaller figures, are distributed among the counties in Castilla y León (that are managers of the bibliobus services), the island counties, and Extremadura.