ACQNET: RE - Circulation stats (2 replies)

(1)--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2002 14:22:09 -0400
From: Vicky Tsai (Central Piedmont Comm. College) <vicky_tsai_at_cpcc.edu>
Subject: RE - Circulation stats

Here are the stats of our multi-campus libraries:

1. Collection size:  134,164

2.  % circulated: 11.5%
     (for the largest branch at central campus, it is 16%
      for the second largest branch at south campus, it is 12.7%)

3. remainder of collection not circulated (88.5%)

4. per our collection development policy, our de-selection policy is
stated
as: "Library staff members review the book collection on a continuing
basis
to identify materials that are obsolete, damaged or little used."  We
try
to weed the entire reference collection once a year or two years,
generally
during the summer months.

Please send us/share with us the data you collected from other libraries
as
we would like to find out and compare with other libraries' stats.
Thanks.

Vicky Tsai
Librarian
Central Piedmont Community College
vicky_tsai_at_cpcc.edu

(2)-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 11:12:53 -0400
From:  Margo Warner Curl (College of Wooster) <mcurl_at_wooster.edu>
Subject: RE: Circulation stats

This message was forwarded on to me ... I have done some investigation
regarding this in our consortium & have given you some responses below:
Our consortium consists of four private undergraduate liberal arts
institutions
with enrollments running about 1300-2000 students.
Margo Warner Curl

1) How big is your collection?
Size is given for the shared catalog (CONSORT) and for the individual
institutions - data current to 6/30/01.

Consortia (CONSORT) - 1207121 items (Innopac system item count)
Denison Univ - 298779 items
Kenyon College - 296111 items
Ohio Wesleyan University - 275839 items
College of Wooster - 319777 items

2) What percentage of it circulates?

Don't have figures for what percent is actually available for
circulation
(meaning those things that are not on reserve, in reference, in special
collections, etc.)

But to answer 2 & 3 re what percent actually circulates or doesn't
circulate -- data comes from when we first formed our shared online
catalog
in 1996 to 6/30/01 (DEN figures go back to 1991 since they were the
'home'
catalog for our shared system):

CONSORT - 41.54% of items circulated at least once
DEN - 45.16% of items circulated at least once
KEN - 39.1% of items circulated at least once
OWU - 34.4% of items circulated at least once
WOO - 49.1% of items circulated at least once

So - overall about 40% circulated, 60% did not.  This 60% includes
noncirculating categories such as those mentioned above.

I conducted a sample survey of more recent purchases (items purchased
7/1/00-12/31/01) and the circ. rate for those was 52% circulated at
least
once, so higher than the overall rate.

3) What percentage has never circulated or been checked out?
4) What kind of weeding programs do you have--regular or as needed?

All for consortium members weed as needed.  Some campuses are more
active
than others.

Margo Warner Curl
Coordinator of Cooperative Collection Development,
CONSORT Colleges
(Denison University, Kenyon College,
Ohio Wesleyan University, The College of Wooster)

c/o The College of Wooster Libraries
1140 Beall Avenue
Wooster OH 44691

phone: 330-263-2056
fax: 330-263-2253
email: mcurl_at_acs.wooster.edu

http://www.wooster.edu/library/oh5/cccd/