The Normative Data Project (NDP) went live in time for the ALA meeting in Chicago, and a number of attendees had a chance to see it in operation. We hope you will take a look at the NDP Web page to learn more about it and its capabilities. The Web site provides the location for subscribers to log on as well as information about the NDP, documentation, and reports generated using NDP data and other data from other sources.

The NDP is an integrated set of data on U.S. public libraries all wrapped up in a drag-and-drop interface that allows sophisticated analysis without formulas and programming. The first time I saw it do a complex calculation and then saw the answer just pop on the screen, I said to myself, “That’s impossible.” Nothing, I then thought, could do such calculations with simple mouse manipulations. How wrong I was. As a result of the data and the interface, even math phobes can do astonishing analysis within a few minutes of logging on for the first time.

The core of the NDP is information on library holdings and transactions for a set of member libraries. As of this writing, there are almost 500 libraries in over 50 systems that contribute detailed data on circulations and holdings – but more libraries are being added. Data available include: circulations, renewals, type of material, titles held and checked out – it is a substantial list…and virtually all of these variables can be analyzed in comparison with others. The databases do not contain personally identifiable information but they do categorize library uses by groups: juvenile, adult, library staff, and so forth. So, one can ask: how many circulations of DVDs were there to library staff last month? What are the most popular circulating titles in the Dewey classes 300-309 during 2004?

Surrounding this core are related data not only about these member public libraries and the communities they serve but also data for all public libraries in the U.S.

There are maps through GeoLib that provide basic demographic information such as population, ethnic makeup, population in poverty for a default set of U.S. Census blocks. These maps are configurable so that libraries can update the system supplied defaults to reflect more accurately their market areas. There are also more tables from the US Census that provide detailed data on households and population characteristics for the various libraries.

One of the most frequent uses of data about libraries is to analyze comparable libraries. With the NDP, one can find more criteria to judge comparability than the traditional population served or gross expenditure figures. Now one can look at ethnic makeup, income, education, and a number of other factors to try to understand one’s community and to compare a library to comparable member libraries. And resulting data can be charted or exported to a spreadsheet for further analysis.

In addition, there are two series of public library data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) integrated into the NDP. These series represent a systematic and disciplined attempt to collect national data and while collecting data on all libraries, the level of detail is not as great as we find in the NDP or state-level data collection, but it does allow us to make assessments about the condition of libraries nationally and by state.

One of the series is the State Summary Data which gives state level summaries and provides the best source of estimates of the condition of libraries in the states and nationally. The more detailed public library data file provides data on each of the 9,000+ public library systems in the U.S. When I was at the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS), I recompiled this detailed annual series of data into one longitudinal file so that one could analyze trends. For this reason, we refer to this series as the “NCES/NCLIS” data in the NDP. Eventually, we will add all the years of the data to the NDP, but for now, we have three years of each. These data are issued for fiscal years, which vary by state and even within states. The data just released are for the 2003 fiscal year, which for several states actually includes data for calendar year 2004. These data are not as old as one might think.

The State Summary Data are used by NCES to prepare a popular set of tables commonly called the “Rank Order Tables,” but NCES has delayed publishing these tables this year – so we made a preliminary version available to the public on the NDP Web site.

These tables rank states in terms of 22 ratios such as expenditures per capita, circulations per capita, and so on. State librarians use these tables in planning and budgeting, to cite one use.

Just below the rank order tables are graphs showing trends in these ratios and in raw numbers. We have a few there now, but like so much in the NDP, we will be adding to this analysis to complete the picture that these data give us of the condition of libraries in the U.S. Two salient facts appear from these trends: circulations are up and staff is down. After a pretty steady increase in total staff at public libraries of about 2,000 or so a year, in FY2003, the number fell slightly. A more comprehensive picture will become clear as we add to these trend charts.