R&D spending and library spending

[Jan Velterop <velteropvonleyden@btinternet.com>]

Chuck writes:

> Library expenditures for serials HAVE risen in line with 
> research spending. You are complaining about something else?
Not so much a complaint, Chuck, but more an observation. Heather 
finds it inconceivable that budgets rise in line with the 
production of scientific literature and yet the production of 
scientific literature is, broadly, a direct consequence of 
spending on R&D. The NSF reports a compound annual growth rate 
(CAGR) of 9.15% for R&D spending in the US in the 5 years between 
1998 and 2003 (a 55% increase in total: 
http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf05315/). If US serials 
expenditures have gone up by the same percentage each year, I'll 
eat my words, and I'd be delighted to do that.

However, in the period covered by the ARL graph 
(http://www.arl.org/ newsltr/204/big1.html) -- still often used 
even though it covers 1986-1998 -- the CAGR for serials prices is 
8.8%. Price rises probably reached their peak in that period and 
have been going down since, so this percentage is likely to be 
smaller for 1998-2003.  For serial expenditures the CAGR in the 
same, earlier, period is 8%. If you are right, that has 
materially gone up since.

Perhaps there's someone on this list who has these figures for 
the period 1998-2003 to compare them with the NSF R&D statistics?

Jan Velterop

On 24 Feb 2006, at 23:57, Hamaker, Chuck wrote:

> Jan says:" Talking about rituals, isn't it a ritual, too, to 
> complain about prices inc! reasing faster than library budgets? 
> Nothing remotely scientific about it. There would be a point if 
> library budgets had broadly stayed in line with research 
> spending. But they haven't. Isn't it an article of faith that 
> the budgets "could not conceivably rise" in line with the 
> production of scientific literature?"
>
> Response: Library expenditures for serials HAVE risen in line
> with research spending. You are complaining about something else?
>
> Chuck Hamaker
> Associate University Librarian Collections and Technical Services
> Atkins Library
> University of North Carolina Charlotte
> Charlotte, NC 28223
> phone 704 687-2825