Library Circulation Research Articles

The Patterns of Slide Library Circulation: A Study

The Patterns of Slide Library Circulation: A Study

A new explanation of the geometric law in the case of library circulation data

In this article we propose a mathematical model using the probability formalism in order to explain why we often observe a geometrical law in the case of library circulation data. To obtain this result we used simple techniques based on convolution theory.

Spectral methods for detecting periodicity in library circulation data: A case study

The purpose of this investigation is to show the feasibility of spectral methods in the field of information science, in particular for the analysis of library circulation data. Using the software package MATLAB® we applied the discrete Fourier transform to obtain frequency information about the noisy time series of circulation data. Over a time span of two academic years we could clearly detect a semestral and—less visibly—a weekly periodicity. Other periods were not so distinct and could be spurious. The normal loan period of four weeks could not be detected. Following McGrath (1996, Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 47, 136–145), and Naylor and Walsh (1994, Library and Information Science Research, 16, 299–314) we conclude that spectral methods show a lot of promise for analyzing all kinds of time series and other signals occurring in the field of information science. This approach certainly deserves more attention from practitioners.

Achieving community borrower compliance with an urban university library's circulation policies: One university's solution

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas Library has taken steps to provide the community with access to its collections while safeguarding its resources. It requires external borrowers to register a major credit card and agree to have the Library charge replacement costs and fees to their accounts.

State Statutes on Confidentiality of Library Circulation Records

Abstract This work updates Alan Jay Lincoln's 1992 Library & Archival Security article that compiled 26 state statutes concerning the confidentiality of library records. Since that article appeared, several states have enacted confidentiality statutes and five have revised their statutes. The statutes reproduced here complement Lincoln's article. Those statutes included here were either not included in the 1992 article or those states' legislatures have since revised the law.

Periodicity in academic library circulation: A spectral analysis

Periodicity in academic library circulation: A spectral analysis

Periodicity in academic library circulation: A spectral analysis

Periodicity in academic library circulation: A spectral analysis

Periodicity in academic library circulation: A spectral analysis

Spectral analysis was used to identify periods in four academic library circulation series (journals, faculty books, student books, and turnstile count) and four of pickup for shelving (reference books, non-reference books, bound journals, and current journals). Observed periods were compared to theoretical periods in a 364-day academic calendar: Two were expected, 182 and 7 days; one (122 days) was interpreted as a 112-day semester plus an interim of about 10 days; two were unexpected (3.5 and 2.3 days). The 182-day (about half an academic year) was strongest in the pickup series. The 7-day period was strong in all series. The 3.5 days was strong in most series. The 2.3 day, found only in circulation, is close to every-other-day usage or about 3 cycles per week, and may be due to Monday-Wednesday-Friday class scheduling, or it may be spurious. Only the 182-day period was visible in time charts. No evidence was found for a monthly period, the calendar unit in which library time series are often recorded. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Towards the active collection: the use of circulation analyses in collection evaluation

As Learning Services at Liverpool John Moores University came under increasing pressure to provide value for money, they undertook a library per formance measurement exercise based on library circulation data gathered by their Dynix Library System. The project aimed to produce a simple analysis of the use of new acquisitions which would utilize the management infor mation existing in the library's automated system and set out to achieve 2 aims: to analyze the use made of each book acquired in order to determine the pro portion of each subject area's new acquisitions which circulated in the first full year of shelf life and the number of loans per item in each subject area; and to compare the library's acquisitions with statistics produced by Loughborough University's Library and Information Statistics Unit (LISU). Concludes that the data derived from these circulation activity reports can prove valuable in collection evaluation, enabling the library to identify high and low performing subject areas and examine budget allocations. The lim itations of this technique, identified in the study, could be easily overcome by library system suppliers if they provided collection management infor mation at a more sophisticated level.

Using a gravity model to predict circulation in a public library system

In 1990, the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library closed one library branch and replaced it with another at a new location. A gravity model, based upon principles of spatial interaction, was developed to predict the circulation of libraries in the system, especially the new branch. Using 1989 circulation data and data on library stocks and the distribution and characteristics of the population in the service area, the model effectively predicted these 1989 circulation levels. The gravity model is tested by predicting library circulations in 1991, particularly the circulation for the new branch library.

Reading in Czechoslovakia 1989–1991; A survey of the public's reception of works of fiction

Reading in Czechoslovakia under Communism did not conform to the official line maintaining that citizens were primarily interested in serious political works. On the contrary, surveys revealed that light fiction and works from the West were the books with the highest public library circulation. The long period of spiritual stagnation led to the degradation of critical ability, one result of which was that some sophisticated and controversial Western works such as John Irving's The World According to Garp were acceptable to Communist authorities because they were mistakenly deemed “light literature”. In the years immediately following the demise of Communism, Czech public library users did not show a radical change in their choice of titles, but the author points out that the recently improved distribution and availability of both “high” and “low” literature may have altered habits considerably in the period since the survey was done.

Reading in Czechoslovakia 1989–1991; A Survey of the Public’s Reception of Works of Fiction

Reading in Czechoslovakia under Communism did not conform to the official line maintaining that citizens were primarily interested in serious political works. On the contrary, surveys revealed that light fiction and works from the West were the books with the highest public library circulation. The long period of spiritual stagnation led to the degradation of critical ability, one result of which was that some sophisticated and controversial Western works such as John Irving’s The World According to Garp were acceptable to Communist authorities because they were mistakenly deemed “light literature”. In the years immediately following the demise of Communism, Czech public library users did not show a radical change in their choice of titles, but the author points out that the recently improved distribution and availability of both “high” and “low” literature may have altered habits considerably in the period since the survey was done.

A time-series model for academic library data using intervention analysis

Library time-series, as described in the literature, have been based on monthly data that mask the highly variable nature of library circulation and other internal statistics. This article presents a model of an 8.4-year time-series of weekly academic library journal pickup data. Using MINITAB and SPSS procedures, various models, which included seasonality and intervention variables, were tested. Although periodicity was observed by spectral analysis, it was not a factor in providing a better model. Rather, the best fit was achieved with a model which included an intervention variable based on library hours.

Displays and Displacement of Circulation

Studies of displays have, in the main, been limited to examining the effect of the display phenomenon on the items on display. An experiment involving eight small public libraries in one Illinois library system tested the broader effect of displays on tumover rate and total circulation. Results found that displaying books from the adult circulating collection did not significantly increase overall library circulation or circulation of adult books. While books on display may circulate more often, there is evidence that this circulation is displaced from other areas of the collection.

A model for library book circulations incorporating loan periods

A simple modification of the well-known mixed Poisson model for library circulations is proposed which takes account of the periods when a book is out on loan, and hence, unavailable for borrowing. It is found that this helps to explain the rapid tailing-off in the upper end of observed frequency-of-circulation distributions. Practical consequences of the model include the possibility of investigation of the effects of proposed changes in loan policy and more reliable prediction of future use to assist in, for example, decisions concerning relegation of stock to storage. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The confidentiality of interlibrary loan records

Although professional concern has been directed to the confidentiality of library circulation records, interlibrary loan records have been virtually ignored. The author discusses potential problems for confidentiality within ILL, outlines legal issues related to confidentiality, and proposes guidelines intended to protect library users' right to privacy.

The Netherlands and the Nazi Genocide (review)

Book Reviews 103 supported Israel, though without trying to practice American-style ethnic politics in an environment that remains resistant to such ideas. Kaspi's survey is broader in scope than any of the literature in English on Jews in wartime France, and an English version would be welcome for undergraduate courses on the Holocaust. The bibliography is thorough, although-understandably, in view ofthe book's intended audience-it fails to indicate which titles are available in English. Specialists in the field will find little that is new here, but Kaspi's book constitutes the best synthesis of the subject to date and makes it possible to understand some of the ways in which the experience of the Jews in France differed from that of their fellows in other European countries. Jeremy D. Popkin Department of History University of Kentucky The Netherlands and the Nazi Genocide, edited by G. Jan Colijn and Franklin Littell. Lampeter, Dyfed, Wales: Edwin Mellen Press, 1992. 544 pp. $95.00. This volume is an amalgam of the papers presented at the 21st Annual Scholar's Conference on the Holocaust held in Pomona, NewJersey during March 1991. As is often the case, the title of the work is at once focused and misleading. Only nine of the articles are related to the Nazi genocide in the Netherlands, while twenty-four deal with other subjects. Nevertheless , it provides significant information about the Dutch experience and related issues about the Holocaust. It is unfortunate that the book is so expensive, as cost may militate against greater library circulation. The Netherlands represents a country during the Nazi era where many misconceptions exist. Many people believe there was strong support of the Jewish population by the Dutch, linked to the longer history of welcome given in Amsterdam to those of Spanish descent in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The reality, however, offers a somewhat different picture. Only 40,000 of the 140,000 Dutch Jews survived the Holocaust. Anne Frank's story, which has become an icon of modern culture and the story 'of the Holocaust, represents the essence of the question-Anne did not survive. Furthermore, the Netherlands had. the largest Nazi party outside ofGermany and Austria, something not found in France or Poland. 104 SHOFAR Spring 1993 Vol. 11, No.3 Nanda van der Zee's article on the theme of "Dutch Heroism" is useful in that it reiterates many of Presser's themes about Dutch complicity: the bureaucratic zeal ofthe Dutch Union, complicity ofPopulation Registry Offices and the police in identitying Jews, and the failure of both government in exile and the Red Cross to speak out about the specificity of Nazi persecution of Dutch and other Jews. Ger van Roon's article on the Protestant Churches echoes this theme indicating the insufficiency of Church responses, except for a protest against the policy of Dutch neutralism by followers ofKarl Barth and the "Barmen Theses" in 1939 and 1940" and the altruistic responses by individual Dutchmen in hiding Jews. Jack Polak, writing as a survivor and historian, takes a different position. He underscores the "unbelievable might of the Germans," the difficulty in getting out of the country, the absence of knowledge by Jews themselves about gas chambers, and the failures of the Dutch government to provide any spokesmen for the Jewish cause. Polak enumerates the varying levels of Dutch resistance, and contrasts them with Jewish persecution and resistance, the co-option of Jewish institutions, such as the Jewish newspaper, by the Nazis, and lack of knowledge of the ultimate solution. In responding to Judith Miller's recent work on the Dutch Jews, Polak's conclusion is that the Dutch took exceptional casualties and there was no alternative for the Jews' fate. Henry Huttenbach affirms many of Polak's points, concluding that "the Holocaust in the Netherlands reveals nothing outstanding or unusual on all three sides-the German, the Dutch and the Jewish ... The coming of the Nazis removed the protective cover of the law, making the forbidden permissible." The second section of this book will provide perhaps some of the most interesting articles, as they go beyond the focus of the Netherlands. Herbert Hirsh's article focuses on...

Changing Circulation Policies at an ARL Library

This article examines the technique of using peer institution data as a basis for forming and proposing changes in circulation policies at an ARL Library. Peer institutions for the University of Arizona Library were surveyed in respect to their circulation policies. The data were compared to other academic library circulation policy surveys and used to recommend specific changes in the graduate loan period, the fines structure, telephone renewals and fees for non-university borrowers. The process of using peer institution data focused discussion and proved to be an effective catalyst for changing policies. Most important, it was a process considered relevant by library and campus administrators.

The negative binomial distribution as a trend distribution for circulation data in flemish public libraries

Based on data collected by the authors in Flemish public libraries, we show how the negative binomial distribution (NBD) can be used as a trend distribution for library circulation data. Although actual data show more variation than simple statistics can explain, we recommend the use of the NBD for practical, managerial purposes. As a consequence we also recommend the teaching of these methods in introductory library management courses.

Development of self‐directed learning behaviors in a partially teacher‐directed problem‐based learning curriculum

Data from three sources (self‐reports of students, review of accreditation and program evaluation documents, and library circulation statistics) supported the hypothesis that students in a problem‐based learning (PBL) curriculum with significant teacher‐centered components nevertheless acquire behaviors reflecting self‐directed learning skills. These PBL students exhibited differences in the extent to which their learning was self‐directed when compared to lecture‐based students. The learning process and features of this partially teacher‐directed, PBL program that fostered the development of self‐directed learning are discussed. Development of these skills depended on the curriculum's adherence to the use of student‐generated learning issues as a guide for defining content to be learned, but also on several other factors.