NORWAY

This page contains links to library statistics from Norway in the Plinius Data Bank.

Picture from Northern Norway (Finnmark).

Some relevant statistics from neighbouring fields – like media, culture and education – are also included.

Tables

Historical

• Norwegian public libraries 1918-2008.

National: DIFI

The Agency for Public Management and eGovernment (DIFI) started a biannual series of citizen surveys in 2009 (Innbyggerundersøkelsen – in Norwegian). The surveys basically measure user satisfaction with a range of public services – including public libraries. The program is big, well-designed and promises a steady stream of interesting data about trends and patterns.

In additional to a general survey of all citizens, a sample of people who actually use particular services – including public libraries, receive specially designed questionnaires on that  service. Results from the first round of the general survey were published in January 2010. Results from the second round, on individual services, were published in November. All data are available for free re-use on the web.

National library

The National Library has now (mid 2011) released the complete public library spreadsheet for 2009. I have (August 2011) processed some of the new material:

• PubLib Data 2009.

National: other

• Fagbibliotek. Norge. 2008.
  • Selected academic and special libraries. Norway. 2008. Some basic variables and indicators.
• Norway. Loans 1996-2010. Selected Bibliofil libraries
• Skolebibliotekets tilbud til grunnskoler. 2009.
  • Tabellrapport fra Utdanningsdirektoratets spørreundersøkelser blant skoler og skoleeiere våren 2009
  • = School library services to primary schools
  • Based on a survey of schools and their owners (municipalities) in the spring 2009
• Besøk folkebibliotek 2008. Kjønn og alder
  • Basert på Kulturbarometeret
• Kombinasjonsbibliotek 2009.

Academic libraries

• Fagbibliotek. Norge. 2008.
• Selected academic and special libraries. Norway. 2008. Some basic variables and indicators.
• UBO 1999-2010. Oslo University Library. Periodical subscriptions. Staff (FTEs)

KOSTRA (Muncipalities)

• 2010 KOSTRA data with indicators. The data processing described (Norwegian).

• KOSTRA10A. Seventeen variables
• KOSTRA10B. Indicator values, by size of municipality
• KOSTRA10. Utgifter. Visits. Sakprosa. Diagrammer
• KOSTRA10. Besøk og utlån. Diagrammer
• KOSTRA10. Scatter diagrams and correlations
• 2009 KOSTRA data with indicators for public libraries. Norway. Municipalities.
  • Seventeen variables. Twenty-six indicators
  • The data processing is described here.
  • KOSTRA quartiles 2009. See also PL 24/11. Size matters
• 2008 KOSTRA data with indicators for public libraries. Norway. Municipalities
  • Seventeen variables. Twenty-six indicators
• 2007 KOSTRA data with indicators for public libraries. Norway. Municipalities.
  • Seventeen variables. Twenty-six indicators
• 2006 KOSTRA data with indicators for public libraries. Norway. Municipalities.
  • Eight variables. Six indicators.

Municipalities: Other

• Book loans per capita. Norway 2001-2007. Municipalities.
• Changes in book loans by category. Norway 2006-2007.  Municipalities.
• Children and New media loans 2006-2008. Municipalities.
• Fiction and non-fiction loans per adult. Norway 06-08. Municipalities.
• Inhabitants per FTE (Innbyggere pr. årsverk) 2001-2008. Municipalities.
• Public libraries. Activity and geography. Norway. 2005.
• Public libraries. Norway 2005. Municipalities above 10000
• Visits per capita Norway 2006-2008. Municipalities

Regional and local

• Buskerud 2008. Borrowers. Municipalities
• Buskerud.  Selected data and diagrams.
  • Muncipalities, 1998, 2008, 2009.
• Hordaland 2008. Data og indikatorer.
• Ålesund PL. 2008. Borrowers and loans.

See also Fylkesstatistikk (County statistics). In Norwegian.

Book titles

• Most popular non-fiction books winter 08/09.
• 1000 top titles. Adults. Aug. 3, 2009.
• 1000 top loans. Children. Aug 6, 2009

CTT/TTT

• CTT. Public libraries. Norway 2008-
  • Traffic data from thirty-four public libraries with derived indicator values
  • Replaces Patterns of activity, Public libraries. Norway. 2008-2009
• Students in action: An observation study of the Oslo University College Learning Centre.
  • Contains 9.500 observations of student activities – registered during one full week in March 2009.
• Aktiviteter
  • Summary of activity data from Norwegian public libraries.
  • Includes CTT data, data from the Metropolitan study (Storbyundersøkelsen) and data from a major national survey in 2006.
  • Text in Norwegian (for the time being).
• Bekkestua 2010.
  • Traffic data from the central library in the municipality of Bærum (100 K pop), with analyses

Graphics

• ST 44/11: KOSTRA kvartildata 2009. Tjue linjediagrammer med data fra (egne) KOSTRA-indikatorer
• Informasjonsgrafikk for bibliotekarer. Samleartikkel.

Bubble diagrams

• Book loans per capita. Norway 2001-2007. Municipalities. Choose the tab Boblebad
• Bærum Public Library 1997-2009

Education

• HiO, HiAk og høyskolene.
  • Selected data from the Norwegian Higher Education Data Base [Database for høyere utdanning]

Resources

In Norway, the main producers of library statistics are

• Statistics Norway = Statistisk sentralbyrå (SSB)
• The Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority = ABM-utvikling
  • In 2010, the library section was moved to the National Library.

Statistics Norway

Statistics Norway has an extremely rich and highly professional web site. To utilize it fully, it must be explored in detail. Here I indicate two points of access to library statistics:

• 07.01.40 Libraries, museums, archives, and other dissemination of culture
• Key figures for municipal activities (KOSTRA)

The latter page gives a brief introduction to the KOSTRA system. The KOSTRA data base contains standardized statistics for all municipal services – including public libraries. To go further, we must enter the Norwegian part of the site.

In my own work, I mainly use KOSTRA Table 04692 (= Tabell: 04692: K. Kultur – nivå 3 (K)), which provides individual values for all the variables that are used to calculate library indicators.

The Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority (ABM-utvikling)

• Statistikk for bibliotek is the main page on library statistics.
• Statistikk for fag- og forskningsbibliotek is the main page on statistics for academic and special libraries

Samstat – with TTT/CTT

• Samarbeidsutvalget for bibliotekstatistikk [Joint committee for library statistics] consists of representatives from most library associations at the national level.
• TTT. [Tverrgående trafikktelling = CTT]. Home page in Norwegian with links to resources.
• CTT. [Count the Traffic = TTT]. Home page in English with links to resources.

Plinius: blog posts on library statistics

• Plinius om statistikk. Index to posts in Norwegian
• Plinius on statistics. Index to posts in English

APPENDIX

The following tables have been replaced by newer  tables above.

• Turnover rates for adult fiction. Norway 2007. Municipalities.
• External indicators based on KOSTRA. Norway 2007. Municipalities.
• Preliminary KOSTRA data for large public libraries. Norway 2008. Municipalities
• Patterns of activity, Public libraries. Norway. 2008-2009 has been replaced by CTT. Public libraries. Norway 2008