50,000 And Climbing

It’s the end of the fiscal year and you know what that means…it’s statistics season! I’ve just finished compiling our FY2010-2011 stats and will now be subjecting them to feats of interpretation and contemplation.

Did you know:

  • Since FY2003 we have repaired and bound over 50,000 books and pamphlets; we have also made over 51,000 custom enclosures.
  • Last year we made 8,538 enclosures thanks in large part to the broadside project and the History of Medicine project.
  • In FY2011, 57.7% of our work came from the Perkins Library system and 42.3% from Special Collections and Archives.
  • About 78% of our output for the general collections last year was “shelf preparation” work  including pamphlet binding, CoLibri covers, and pockets for books with CD’s.
  • 90% of our output for special collections last year fits into the category of protective enclosures [see bullet #2 above].

I could go on and on, I love statistics as my staff will attest. What do these numbers mean? Several things which will become more apparent as I delve deeper into the meaning behind these numbers. One thing our data does say, our small staff is cranking out the work!

Image from the Emergence of Advertising In America 1850-1920 digital collection.