Here is a sampling of Canadian library statistics that I found via the CUPE 410 discussion forum. It will probably only be of interest to library geeks (I'm looking at you, Danielle & Stefanie!), but I found it interesting.
Population served
Greater Victoria: 293,151
Vancouver Island: 404,806
Vancouver: 584,601
Toronto: 2,503,281Total expenditures
Greater Victoria: $11,681,006
Vancouver Island: $15,099,200
Vancouver: $39,941,485
Toronto: $164,793,162
Canadian average: $11,665,567
Expenditure per capita
Greater Victoria: $39.85
Vancouver Island: $37.30
Vancouver: $68.32
Toronto: $65.83
Canadian average: $37.60Materials / salaries / other as % of expenditures
Greater Victoria: 18.09% — 67.70% — 14.21%
Vancouver Island: 14.39% — 56.03% — 29.56%
Vancouver: 11.32% — 70.56% — 18.18%
Toronto: 10.14% — 73.84% — 16.02%
Canadian average: 12.04% — 68.27% —19.69%(I suspect the Vancouver Island overhead is high because the system covers a vast area so transport costs must be high.)
Total holdings
Greater Victoria: 900,042
Vancouver Island: 1,394,347
Vancouver: 2,744,036
Toronto: 10,766,433
Canadian average: 854,569Holdings per capita
Greater Victoria: 3.07
Vancouver Island: 3.44
Vancouver: 4.69
Toronto: 4.30
Canadian average: 2.77Materials expenditure per capita
Greater Victoria: $7.21
Vancouver Island: $4.80 (see note above)
Vancouver: $7.73
Toronto: $6.67
Canadian average: $4.67% of materials expenditure on print materials
Greater Victoria: 72.92%
Vancouver Island: 81.45%
Vancouver: 71.39%
Toronto: 82.71%
Canadian average: 73.91%
Total circulation
Greater Victoria: 4,812,606
Vancouver Island: 4,533,001
Vancouver: 10,115,900
Toronto: 30,412,490
Canadian average: 2,817,125Registered borrowers as % of population
Greater Victoria: 59.38%
Vancouver Island: 53.83%
Vancouver: 63.87%
Toronto: 49.47%
Canadian average: 49.82%Circulation per registered borrower
Greater Victoria: 27.65
Vancouver Island: 20.80
Vancouver: 29.09
Toronto: 24.56
Canadian average: 20.18Total staff
Greater Victoria: 171.97
Vancouver Island: 169.67
Vancouver: 515.82
Toronto: 1817.66
Canadian average: 146.31(I believe this refers only to librarians.)
Population per staff
Greater Victoria: 1705
Vancouver Island: 2386
Vancouver: 1135
Toronto: 1377
Canadian average: 2106
The numbers at the top tell most of the story, I think. In the big cities, per capita expenditures are high and so are staffing (i.e. service) levels. Victoria's materials' spending is good because overhead and staffing are low. Even so, our holdings are low, perhaps because the main library is full to capacity and the municipalities can't get it together to build a new central branch. The Vancouver Island system, with it's low spending and high overhead, still has much better holdings than Greater Victoria.
There, are you all alseep now? Hey, at least I didn't use PowerPoint!
