Many thanks to Sarah for providing a link to the ALA membership numbers (http://www.ala.org/membership/membershipstats_files/annual_memb_stats ) - for info these are freelyt available and date back from 1900 to the present day.

I have added these to the Google Spreadsheet at

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Oz3FTd9LOYNnkJcV0U5cI2W8UMQbeO4FXf2CNUJ2zo0/

in order to compare the trends with CILIP since 2002.

The graph of these figures illustrates how different interpretations can be given to the same data. Figure 2A suggests a sharp decline since 2005 whereas Figure 2B suggest that the ALA membership numbers are fairly steady.

I hope this is useful.

Brian

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Brian Kelly, Innovation Advocate, Cetis, University of Bolton, UK

Email: [log in to unmask]

Twitter: @briankelly

Blog: http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/

Cetis web site: http://www.cetis.ac.uk/