PROVING YOUR WORTH

Libraries: How they stack up is a great marketing piece from OCLC. It has a series of visual comparisons of library as other types of enterprises. For example, libraries as economic engines vs. retail video, athletic footwear, and magazine advertising. Another good one compares visits to US libraries (1.1 billion) vs. tickets sold to all major sports (204 million). There’s even one comparing library circulation to Fedex and Amazon—of course libraries beat them both, after all, this is from OCLC. It’s a bit out of date (2003), but the trends should be the same now. Although it is based on public library statistics, it wouldn’t be hard to adapt the idea for your own library.

URL: http://www.oclc.org/reports/2003libsstackup.htm