istics of the reader, and, strictly speaking, the attitudes of librarians. The administrator is eager to show the maximum use of resources at minimum costs. The professional librarian shows a stage preference for either playing the role of the arbiter of taste, or claiming to outperform popular televison stars. Somewhere in among management, librarians, and the collection is the user, underfoot and always on the verge of being missed. The difficulty is to discover an evaluative process which will satisfy all attitudes and, if only by inference, the expressed and unexpressed needs of the elusive reader. How then does one evaluate a collection based upon past, present and probable future use; as well as the fidgeting of the public, administrators and the librarians? One need not despair that there are no ever present or monotonous answers. The limitations of the whole evaluative process are such that, since there are so many variables, evaluation is only effective as long as there is a clear understanding both of the public and of library materials. The whole process of matching collections with users requires continued galloping toward understanding. Despite the quick-witted, the slow, or the downright stupid user study, which normally obeys the propriety of painful prose, the collection-user evaluative process is not only a glint of research reflected in a single, or series of articles, it is a daily-usually informal-method of trying to discover the link between the collection and the user. The results are speculative, albeit often practical.

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/7384/librarytrendsv33i3h_opt.pdf?sequence=1

A Way of Looking at Things

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1471-1842.2008.00780.x

In search of the mythical ‘typical library user’

In this article, I have traced the literature of marketing libraries and information services from 1970 to the present. This period immediately follows Kotler and Levy's introductory article in the Journal of Marketing (January 1969) which first suggested the idea of marketing nonprofit organizations. The use of the marketing concept for libraries and information services was an idea which did not appear until after that date. However, many articles on specific aspects of marketing, such as publicity and public relations, were published prior to 1970. These areas have been touched upon only briefly to show their connection with marketing.

Marketing Libraries and Information Services: An Annotated Guide to the Literature

Looks at the practical applications of marketing principles to the management of library services in the UK. Assesses the place of market research in the planning cycle and describes and reviews a variety of tactical responses. Concludes that the public library service in the UK will probably develop unconventional avenues of marketing, e.g. allowing people to tele‐order groceries via a computer installed in a local library, in order for them to reach a great consumer audience.

The Marketing of Public Library Services in the UK — Practical Applications

An analysis of Quebec academic libraries’ direct reciprocal borrowing statistics from 2005 to 2010 reveals that the physical distance separating universities plays an important role in determining the amount of direct reciprocal borrowing activity conducted between institutions. Significant statistical correlations were also seen between the amount of direct reciprocal borrowing/lending as well as institution size and library collection size. Given their proximity, Montreal-area libraries have a higher ratio of direct reciprocal borrowing activity compared to interlibrary loan consortial borrowing activity, whereas libraries located outside of Montreal have higher interlibrary loan activity compared to direct reciprocal borrowing. It was found that institutions’ net lender and borrower status can shift depending on whether one is looking at direct reciprocal borrowing versus interlibrary loan activity. An exploratory social network analysis of direct reciprocal borrowing among Quebec academic libraries wa...

http://crc.ebsi.umontreal.ca/files/sites/60/2015/10/journal_of_access_services_revision.pdf

An Analysis of Direct Reciprocal Borrowing among Quebec University Libraries.

More Books, Not Market Surveys!.

IN AN EARLIER ARTICLE, I PRE sented evidence calling into question resource sharing and networking trends in public librarianship today.1 I pointed out that interlibrary loans are typically a fraction of one percent of public library circulation?even in states such as Illinois?and that most of the sharing is between public libraries. School and spe cial libraries contribute less than one per cent of even this small figure. And it has always been this way because patrons are unwilling to accept a definition of access to books that requires them to go some where else or await future delivery. The proof against a "technological fix" for resource sharing through the use of computers and telefacsimile equipment can be seen in the effect produced at the end of the 19th century, when public libraries switched from closed stacks to open shelf collections. Their circulation soared. For the patron, bibliographic networking is merely a return to the closed-stack concept. No technological future can possibly improve on the access provided by a closed stack collection for either knowledge of holdings or delivery speed. The lesson we should have learned, however, is that people want to browse among books. They quietly insist on this by ignoring alternatives. They will not ask

Thomas H. Ballard

Papers

More Books, Not Market Surveys!.

Dogma Clouds the Facts.

The Unfulfilled Promise of Resource Sharing.