Academic
A 1-year study (academic 1969-70) of 7,126 interlibrary loan transactions among RAILS members (11 state-assisted university libraries in Ohio) showed thatthere was no statistically significant correlation between volume of ILL requests and size of collection. There was also no statistically significant correlation between ILL use and number of subscriptions or enrollment. (Source)
A study reported in 1981 concerning the relationship between interlibrary loan activity and collection size in major academic libraries, based on 5 years of statistics (academic year 1973-74 through 1977-78) from 82 Association for Research Libraries members, showed thatthere was a statistically significant but not particularly strong correlation between collection size and ILL lending, with the larger libraries tending to lend more and the smaller libraries tending to lend less. The correlation ranged from r = .444 in academic 1973-74 to r = .605 in academic 1974-75. (Significant at the .05 level in all 5 cases.) (Source)
Ibid…. showed thatthere was a statistically significant but only weak correlation between collection size and ILL borrowing, with the smaller libraries tending to borrow more and the larger libraries tending to borrow less. The correlation ranged from r = .291 in academic 1973-74 to r = .393 in academic 1977-78. (Significant at the .05 level in all 5 cases.) (Source)
