National Center for Education Statistics

Table 16. Number of items in library collections and the number of times items are in circulation at Title IV degree-granting institutions, by level and control of institution, and type of library collection or circulation: United States, fiscal year 2020
Type of library collection or circulation		All institutions	4-year				2-year
			Public	Private			Public	Private
				Nonprofit	For-profit			Nonprofit	For-profit
Total library collections		3,145,637,700	1,139,565,794	1,162,972,214	89,215,250		453,454,175	30,177,155	270,253,112
Physical library collections (books,    media, and serials)		908,876,281	518,572,104	349,032,580	2,099,341		37,757,539	499,432	915,285
Physical books		728,003,702	400,579,790	289,771,754	1,665,216		34,665,962	471,039	849,941
Physical media		159,154,221	104,816,133	51,194,681	347,622		2,743,132	16,124	36,529
Physical serials		21,718,358	13,176,181	8,066,145	86,503		348,445	12,269	28,815
Electronic library collections (books,    databases, media, and serials)		2,236,761,419	620,993,690	813,939,634	87,115,909		415,696,636	29,677,723	269,337,827
Digital/electronic books		1,229,903,336	421,215,140	516,829,712	59,199,298		173,579,465	8,130,733	50,948,988
Databases		1,547,963	394,400	594,427	60,387		167,303	72,093	259,353
Digital/electronic media		630,226,290	117,593,851	181,604,383	19,860,688		202,688,397	13,957,040	94,521,931
Digital/electronic serials		375,083,830	81,790,299	114,911,112	7,995,536		39,261,471	7,517,857	123,607,555
Total library circulations		1,024,329,834	437,227,282	345,947,222	73,065,668		159,160,781	569,325	8,359,556
Physical library circulations1 (books, media, and serials)		31,317,376	13,675,025	12,836,186	274,275		4,459,585	31,998	40,307
Digital/electronic circulations2 (books, databases, media, and serials)		993,012,458	423,552,257	333,111,036	72,791,393		154,701,196	537,327	8,319,249

¹Physical library circulation is defined as usage of physical books, media, or serials whether viewed within the library or at an off-site location.

²Digital/electronic circulation is defined as usage of digital/electronic titles whether viewed, downloaded, or streamed.

NOTE: Title IV institutions are those with a written agreement with the U.S. Department of Education that allows the institution to participate in any of the Title IV federal student financial assistance programs. United States includes the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The four U.S. service academies that are not Title IV eligible are included in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) universe because they are federally funded and open to the public and are included in this table. Definitions for terms used in this table may be found in the collection year’s archived downloadable glossary located at https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/use-the-data/annual-survey-forms-packages-archived?year=2020.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS, Spring 2021, Academic Libraries component (final data).