What we collect

Collection statistics

Table 1: Holdings by type of material

 
2003/04
2004/05
2005/06
2006/07
2007/2008

Monographs
(including microforms, electronic media & ephemera)

2 844 895

2 903 382

2 953 697 3 008 746 3 059 424

Serials,
Current

41 946 42 459 44 055 44 504 44 462

Serials,
Non-current

123 989 126 748 126 466 130 156 144 640

Total serials 1
(including newspapers)

165 935 169 207 170 521 174 660 189 102

Manuscripts 2
(metres)

12 642 12 895 13 121 13 481 13 883

Oral History recordings 3

63 906 16 321 16 647 16 925 17 342

Music scores

185 684 189 031 192 332 194 767 197 154

Paintings, drawings, prints, posters

57 251 64 373 70 808 73 167 74 816

Photographs

739 180 750 299 755 426 761 489 764 773

Maps

623 887 643 792 670 547 672 647 674 943

Aerial photographs

858 180 860 187 860 187 860 187 860 231

Digitised collection items

77 340 95 232 110 452 124 543 134 228

Total *

5 616 258
5 691 824
5 800 617
5 887 131
5 972 013

* Totals do not include manuscripts, which are measured in metres.

1. From 2003/04 the basis of counting serial titles changed from manual statistics to figures derived from the catalogue. Figures reflect number of titles rather than number of issues.

2. The number of manuscript items in the collection equates to 150 per metre, i.e. an additional 2,082,450 items

3. From 2004/05 the basis of counting oral history recordings changed from recording hours to title equivalents.

 

Table 2: Number of records in the online catalogue


As at the end of 2007/08 87.8% of the collection is catalogued and searchable through the online catalogue.
Note: one catalogue record can cover several collection items, so there is no direct correlation between the numbers in tables 1 and 2.

 
2003/04
2004/05
2005/06
2006/07
2007/08

Monographs

2 626 688 2 928 998 2 949 620 3 119 150 3 351 654

Serials

250 031 262 366 268 382 272 783 301 454

Manuscripts

15 825 16 276 17 771 18 270 19 565

Oral history

11 619 12 125 12 355 12 805 13 118

Music scores

85 577 88 752 92 365 94 975 97 354

Pictures

87 083 97 114 108 671 118 795 132 647

Maps

62 231 67 356 76 088 81 750 94 478

Total

3 139 054
3 472 987
3 525 252
3 718 528
4 010 270

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