Academic

A 1955 survey of university librarians in the U.S. and Canada (directed primarily though not exclusively to state-supported institutions) requesting information on faculty loan policies and practices (sample size: 120; responding: 84 or 70%) showed that3 libraries reported no limit on length of faculty loans, 1 reported faculty loan period of 3 years, 45 reported an annual audit, 13 reported semester/quarter/term loans, and the rest reported miscellaneous periods under 1 year.             (Source)

A survey reported in 1963 of faculty loan policies in the 62 ARL libraries and 62 libraries in small/medium undergraduate institutions (53 and 55 responding, respectively) showed that27 of the ARL respondents and 26 of the college respondents reported faculty loan periods of indefinite length, 10 ARL and 17 college reported faculty loan periods of an academic year, and 15 ARL and 10 college reported faculty loan periods of a semester/quarter.                         (Source)

A study in 1974 of the relationship between book loan periods and use in the Physics Library at Ohio State University showed thatreduction of the loan period of high-use items to 1 week increased circulation (and presumably the number of patrons having access to high-use items) over a year’s time by 20.9%. Circulation in the previous 2 years had declined by 6 and 7%, respectively.                 (Source)

A study reported in 1977 at Case Western Reserve concerning the impact of shortening the loan period at the Sears Library, containing 200,000 volumes in science, technology, and management, from a semester loan (in 1972) to a 4-week loan (in 1974) showed that203 of 423 book requests (48%) were immediately satisfied under the semester loan system while 245 of 437 book requests (56%) were immediately satisfied under the 4-week loan system.                  (Source)

        Ibid…. showed that, of the 423 requests studied during the semester loan system, 70 (16.5%) were unavailable because circulating, while of 437 requests studied during the 4-wcek loan system, 43 (9.8%) were unavailable because circulating.                 (Source)

        Ibid…. showed that, of the 220 book requests not immediately satisfied under the semester loan system and the 192 book requsts not immediately satisfied under the 4-week loan system, reasons for failure were as follows:

                SEMESTER LOAN      4-WEEK LOAN

                not owned by library                    52 (23.6%)                    38 (19.8%)

                on loan or in-house use                81 (36.8%)                    48 (25.0%)

                library malfunctions                      29 (13.2%)                    45 (23.4%)

                user errors                                   49 (22.3%)                    50 (26.0%)

                other                                              9 (4.1%)                      11 (5.7%)              (Source)

A study reported in 1980 at the Health Sciences Library of the University of California, San Francisco, over a 21-week period in 1979 to determine the effects of limiting journal circulation showed thatwhen a 5-year backfile of all first-copy journals was made noncirculating the average weekly circulation dropped 40.8% (from 2,971 items per week to 1,759 items per week) while the average in-house copying increased 135.7% (from 1,938 article equivalents, i.e., total copying divided by 8.5, to 4,567 article equivalents).                     (Source)

Public

A 1981 study of public libraries in North Carolina (58 or 74.3% responding) concerning the problem of overdue material showed thatthere was no statistically significant relationship between return of overdue materials and telephoning patrons with overdue materials, between overdue rates for libraries that renewed materials and libraries that did not, between the number of notices a library sends out and the overdue rate, only limited and ambiguous evidence of any difference in overdue rates between libraries who take patrons to court and those who do not, and no consistent evidence of a relationship between a library’s loan period and its overdue rate.             (Source)

Special

A study reported in 1980 at the Health Sciences Library of the University of California, San Francisco, over a 21-week period in 1979 to determine the effects of limiting journal circulation showed thatwhen a 5-year backfile of all first-copy journals was made noncirculating the average weekly circulation dropped 40.8% (from 2,971 items per week to 1,759 items per week) while the average in-house copying increased 135.7% (from 1,938 article equivalents, i.e., total copying divided by 8.5, to 4,567 article equivalents).                     (Source)

Dr. David Kohl

 "Libraries in the digital age are experiencing the most profound transformation since ancient Mesopotamian scribes first began gathering and organizing cuneiform tablets."

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