C&RL News February 2021 96

Gary Pattillo is reference librarian at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, e-mail: 
pattillo@email.unc.edu

Serials expenditures at academic libraries in 2018
Nearly 1,600 academic libraries spent a combined total of more than $2 billion on
ongoing commitments to serials during the 2018 fiscal year, according to the 2019
ACRL Academic Library Trends and Statistics Survey. While doctoral-granting
institutions reported spending an average of $4,451,932—an 8 percent increase 
in that category over the previous year—community colleges reported spending 
an average of $85,512—a decrease of 33 percent. Libraries at master’s colleges 
and institutions reported spending an average of $598,735 (an increase of 6 
percent), and libraries at baccalaureate colleges reported spending an average 
of $389,339 (a decrease of 1 percent).
Association of College and Research Libraries, 2019 ACRL Academic Library Trends and Statistics Survey Summary 
Data Tables. https://www.acrlmetrics.com/index.php?page_id=35 (retrieved January 8, 2021).

Journalists arrested in the United States
There were at least 117 verified cases of a journalist being arrested or detained 
on the job in the United States in 2020—up more than 1,200 percent from 
2019. Most arrests occurred during the Black Lives Matter protests last summer.
Freedom of the Press Foundation, “New Report: A Record Breaking Number of Journalists Arrested in the U.S. This 
Year,” December 14, 2020, https://freedom.press/news/2020-report-journalists-arrested-us (retrieved January 8, 2021).

Book industry sales
“Print sales by units (were) up almost 8 percent (in 2020), according to NPD 
BookScan. E-books and audiobooks, which make up a smaller portion of the 
market, (were) up as well. Even though the number of people commuting has 
plummeted... audiobook revenue is up more than 17 percent over the same 
period in 2019, according to the Association of American Publishers, and e-
book sales, which had been declining for the past several years, are up more 
than 16 percent.”
Elizabeth A. Harris, “Surprise Ending for Publishers: In 2020, Business Was Good,” The New York Times, December 
29, 2020, sec. Books, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/29/books/book-publishing-2020.html
(retrieved January 8, 2021).

COVID-induced online learning inequality
“Using high frequency Internet search data to study in real time how U.S. 
households sought out online learning resources as schools closed due to 
the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers found by April 2020, nationwide search 
intensity for both school- and parent-centered online learning resources had 
roughly doubled relative to pre-COVID levels. Areas of the country with higher 
income, better Internet access, and fewer rural schools saw substantially larger 
increases in search intensity. The pandemic will likely widen achievement gaps 
along these dimensions given schools’ and parents’ differing engagement with 
online resources to compensate for lost school-based learning time.”
Andrew Bacher-Hicks, Joshua Goodman, and Christine Mulhern, “Inequality in Household Adaptation to Schooling 
Shocks: Covid-Induced Online Learning Engagement in Real Time,” Journal of Public Economics 193 (January 1, 
2021): 104345, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104345 (retrieved January 8, 2021).

mailto:pattillo%40email.unc.edu?subject=Gary%20Pattillo
https://www.acrlmetrics.com/index.php?page_id=35
https://freedom.press/news/2020-report-journalists-arrested-us
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/29/books/book-publishing-2020.html
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104345