National Center for Education Statistics

Table17. 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 2019
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		2,962,967,443	1,125,781,149	1,030,860,724	89,916,797		372,914,136	75,474,054	268,020,583
Physical library collections (books,    media, and serials)		918,810,114	520,680,198	354,383,587	2,013,145		40,250,301	535,745	947,138
Physical books		731,008,072	397,109,933	294,064,596	1,715,833		36,735,168	503,628	878,914
Physical media		166,705,770	110,847,329	52,501,415	228,965		3,071,463	19,048	37,550
Physical serials		21,096,272	12,722,936	7,817,576	68,347		443,670	13,069	30,674
Digital/electronic library collections (books,    databases, media, and serials)		2,044,157,329	605,100,951	676,477,137	87,903,652		332,663,835	74,938,309	267,073,445
Digital/electronic books		1,067,216,619	366,837,000	428,569,865	61,000,189		154,144,775	4,889,182	51,775,608
Databases		1,511,102	446,136	465,311	55,366		218,885	72,211	253,193
Digital/electronic media		601,004,545	170,254,391	157,051,356	19,758,753		143,595,337	16,150,138	94,194,570
Digital/electronic serials		374,425,063	67,563,424	90,390,605	7,089,344		34,704,838	53,826,778	120,850,074
Total library circulations		700,352,445	341,415,997	201,515,835	48,469,771		98,488,814	565,636	9,896,392
Physical library circulations1 (books, media, and serials)		46,054,269	20,596,465	17,691,937	423,304		7,230,663	53,930	57,970
Digital/electronic circulations2 (books, databases, media, and serials)		654,298,176	320,819,532	183,823,898	48,046,467		91,258,151	511,706	9,838,422

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=2019.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS, Spring 2020, Academic Libraries component (final data).