Fast Facts


C&RL News July/August 2016  364

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

G a r y  P a t t i l l o

Americans are completing more years of education
The percentage of 25- to 29-year-olds who had completed high school rose 
from 87 percent in 2004 to 91 percent in 2014. During the same time period, 
the percentage of young adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher increased 
from 29 percent to 34 percent.
Thomas D. Snyder, Cristobal de Brey, and Sally A. Dillow, Digest of Education Statistics 2014 (NCES 2016-006), April, 
2016, National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, 
D.C., http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2016006 (retrieved June 7, 2016).

Addicted to technology?
Recent studies find that 69 percent of parents and 78 percent of teens check 
their mobile devices at least hourly. Seventy-two percent of teens feel the need 
to respond immediately to texts, while only 48 percent of parents feel the same 
need. Most parents are using mobile devices while driving, even with children in 
the car: 56 percent of parents admit they use their mobile devices while driving; 
51 percent of teens see their parents use their mobile devices while driving.
Common Sense Media Inc., Technology Addiction: Concern, Controversy, and Finding Balance, 2016, https://www.com-
monsensemedia.org/research/technology-addiction-concern-controversy-and-finding-balance (retrieved June 7, 2016).

Print sales vs. e-book sales
In the United Kingdom, “sales of printed books have grown for the first time 
in four years, lifted by the adult colouring book craze and 150th anniversary of 
Alice in Wonderland, as e-books suffered their first ever decline.” E-book sales 
fell by 1.6 percent in 2015—the first drop recorded in seven years—while sales 
of printed books grew by 0.4 percent in the United Kingdom.
Mark Sweney, “Printed book sales rise for first time in four years as ebooks decline,” The Guardian, May 13, 2016, www.
theguardian.com/media/2016/may/13/printed-book-sales-ebooks-decline (retrieved June 7, 2016).

Commercialization and privacy in education
“Schools now routinely direct children online to do their schoolwork, thereby 
exposing them to tracking of their online behavior and subsequent targeted 
marketing.” This type of marketing can include appropriation of space on school 
property, exclusive agreements, sponsored programs and activities, incentive 
programs, sponsorship of supplementary educational materials, and fundraising. 
Faith Boninger and Alex Molnar, “Learning to be Watched: Surveillance Culture at School—The Eighteenth Annual Report 
on Schoolhouse Commercializing Trends, 2014-2015,” May 2016, National Education Policy Center, Boulder, Colorado, 
http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/schoolhouse-commercialism-2015 (retrieved June 8, 2016).

Library budget predictions
Publishers conducted a telephone survey of 686 institutional libraries worldwide. 
Overall library budgets are expected to increase by 1.4 percent. Globally, the 
medical sector predicts the highest rise at 2.8 percent. North America predicts 
a 1 percent increase in budget, overall. Most of this growth is contributed by 
the medical and corporate sectors. Academic institutions predict a modest 0.4 
percent increase.
Publishers Communication Group, “Library budget predictions for 2016,” May, 2016, www.pcgplus.com/wp-content 
/uploads/2016/05/Library-Budget-Prediction-2016-Final.pdf (retrieved June 8, 2016).