An international collaboration between IFLA, the UNESCO Institute of Statistics and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has developed standards for new library indicators for the twenty-first century. The existing international library statistics were developed nearly 40 years ago. This book presents the first results using the new statistics, and look forward to the next steps. It also contains other initiatives and developments in the fields of library statistics, benchmarking and indicators.

The transformation of the Bodleian Libraries provides an example of how major libraries can meet twenty-first century challenges: in 2008 it was facing a failed system installation, a failed plan to cope with its storage needs and the threat of losing status as a repository suitable to house important manuscripts. Three years later it had a new state-of-the-art repository already holding 7 million items under full automated control, a new advanced library system, transformed reader spaces and the reconstruction of its major building well under way; This was achieved in record-breaking time...