RLI 280 Research Library TrRends: A Historical Picture of Services, Resources, and Spending 26 SEPTEMBER 2012 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A QUARTERLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC Figure 6. Electronic Resources vs. Total Materials, Yearly Increases in Average Expenditures, 1993–2011 Figure 6 contains data on several items, which previously had been collected only in the ARL Supplementary Statistics. These data are especially useful because they reflect monies spent on all electronic serials, while the ARL Statistics categories of “serials purchased” and “serials expenditures” include only those journals that provide full-text electronic versions to their subscribers. The nature of what is a serial purchase is shifting. E-books now are coming to libraries as subscription packages. And multimedia products are challenging the traditional notions of serials and monographs. Not only have electronic materials expenditures grown sharply in the past two decades, they have grown at a rate far exceeding that of library materials expenditures overall. Figure 6 shows a sharp growth every year of the past two decades in electronic materials expenditures, anywhere between two and ten times faster than total materials expenditures have grown. The growth rate appears to be slowing down, possibly indicating that an equilibrium position has been reached. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% Electronic Resources Total Materials 2010- 2011 2009- 2010 2008- 2009 2007- 2008 2006- 2007 2005- 2006 2004- 2005 2003- 2004 2002- 2003 2001- 2002 2000- 2001 1999- 2000 1998- 1999 1997- 1998 1996- 1997 1995- 1996 1994- 1995 1993- 1994 4.32% 37.28% 8.48% 47.46% 4.18% 12.86% 9.18% 23.22% 5.53% 22.50% 6.35% 24.81% 27.06% 32.69% 24.29% 32.34% 31.99% 23.85% 17.72% 20.78% 18.16% 3.40% 9.12% 5.92% 3.38% 6.93% 3.39% 7.53% 6.42% 6.44% 10.58% 0.95% 0.64% 8.86% 3.53% 11.30%