University Libraries

Library Facts 2023-24

Each year, we gather statistics for the Association of College and Research Libraries and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) surveys. Here are some highlights from our 2023-24 fiscal year.

Employees

  • Librarians (FTE): 21
  • Support staff (FTE): 33.10
  • Student assistants (FTE): 13.02

Use and services

  • Library personnel handled 10,214 research queries in person, by phone and online.
  • Librarians provided 415 instructional sessions and workshops reaching 6,767 participants.
  • Annual gate count was 260,692 with 5,213 people coming into the Libraries in an average week.
  • 22,800 physical items were checked out during the year (not counting renewals).
  • WMU Libraries borrowed 4,139 items for WMU users from other libraries and lent 8,552 from our collections to other libraries.
  • Libraries' website was visited 157,767 times.
  • WMU users retrieved 540,266 articles and 1,169,517 e-books and media items.
  • There were 2,193,015 downloads worldwide from WMU’s institutional repository (ScholarWorks).
  • 1,020,056 pages were printed in the Libraries.

This use and services data was compiled from a variety of sources.

Collections

  • Physical books (titles): 938,247
  • Electronic books: 1,223,163
  • Physical serials (titles): 17,476
  • Electronic serials: 114,411
  • Online databases: 685
  • Physical media titles (audio/visual): 64,850
  • Digital media titles: 493,749
  • Items held in WMU’s institutional repository (ScholarWorks): 94,567

This collections data was compiled from a variety of sources.

Unless otherwise stated, these statistics cover all branches of Western Michigan University Libraries.

  • Research queries: Reference Analytics transactions in LibAnswers, a ticketing system by Springshare; includes all question formats (in-person, email, live chat, web conference, etc.), and additionally all questions (reference, scheduled consultations, directional, etc.).
  • Instructional sessions and workshops: Number of records for Research Instruction Analysis dataset and number of records for Events, Orientations, Workshops, Tours dataset in LibInsight, a data and usage analytics platform for libraries by Springshare. Includes all online and in-person instructional sessions, both synchronous and asynchronous.
  • Gate count: Number generated by security gates at the entrances of Waldo Library and Zhang Legacy Collections Center.
  • Physical items checked out: Number of fulfilment items in Alma Analytics, a data analysis and reporting tool by Ex Libris for our integrated library system; excludes circulation of equipment and markers.
  • Items borrowed from other libraries: Borrowing and document delivery requests count from Fill Rate Statistics web report in ILLiad Client by Atlas Systems, an interlibrary loan management tool. Includes both returnable and non-returnable materials.
  • Items lent to other libraries:  Lending requests count from Fill Rate Statistics web report in ILLiad Client. Includes both returnable and non-returnable materials.
  • Website visits: Engaged sessions count for webpages filtered by wmich.edu/library subdirectory in Google Analytics, a website tracking tool. 
  • Articles retrieved: Number of full-text downloads provided by vendors, using COUNTER journal reports, an international standard for reporting usage statistics for electronic resources, and manually compiled data reports.
  • E-books and media items retrieved: Number of electronic media and e-book downloads provided by vendors, managed and interpreted via Alma Analytics.
  • ScholarWorks downloads: Downloads in the past year count in Digital Commons, an institutional repository and publishing platform for scholarly works.
  • Page printed in the Libraries: Total pages count in PaperCut, a print management tool that provides printing access to students across campus.
     
  • Physical books (titles): Sum of total titles count for physical items in Alma Analytics, a data analysis and reporting tool by Ex Libris for our integrated library system.
  • Electronic books: Sum of total titles count for electronic items in Alma Analytics.
  • Physical serials (titles): Number of physical items with resource type set to "journal", "newspaper" or "serial" in Alma Analytics.
  • Electronic serials: Number of e-inventory items with resource type set to "journal", "newspaper" or "serial" in Alma Analytics.
  • Online databases: Electronic collections count in Alma Analytics.
  • Physical media titles (audio/visual): Number of physical items using calculations from map total, music total, visual material total and microform title count in Alma Analytics. 
  • Digital media titles: Number of e-inventory items from streaming audio and streaming video counts in Alma Analytics.
  • ScholarWorks items: Total papers count in Digital Commons.