Every so often, one finds wonderful snippets of information about the role libraries play in the everyday lives of Canadians. Just imagine what we might learn if we could say how many loans were made by all the libraries in the country in 1994, or how much money the work of libraries represents in the Canadian economy. The National Core Library Statistics Program will help to answer some of these questions by providing information on national statistics. As of September 1995, the program is only a few months away from producing 1994 survey results, which will cover special, public, and academic libraries.
Partners are the key to the success of the program.
Without them, gathering and analyzing the necessary data from Canadian libraries would not be possible. These organizations contribute their data or provide other forms of assistance. In February 1994, a proposal for a national core statistics program was mailed to special libraries and to other organizations to request their participation and their comments. Suggestions for improvements were received from across the country, and the results of the consultations were incorporated into a draft questionnaire. The questionnaire was then pre-tested by more than 80 libraries of different types and sizes from across the country, and a final version of the questionnaire and definitions was produced.