Use of Library Documents in Specified Fields in Nal Library - A Case Study

A sample survey was undertaken to study the pattern of use of library documents, in specified areas, as revealed by the loan transactions over the twenty-year period 1960-1980, divided into 10 spans of 2 years each. The survey was taken up to provide an objective criterion for the management to take decisions on library collection development policies including the desirability of removing the less used library documents to a secondary shelving space and their eventual weeding out from the collection and transfer to a National depository of library documents of archival nature. The analysis presented in this case study is based on a sample of 1011 documents in the area of materials science that were circulated during the period. The 'Use factor' of a document issued atleast once during the period covered by the Survey has been statistically investigated and presented. A further attempt has been made to characterise the distribution of issue transactions of documents acquired in three specific years, i.e. 1970,1971 and 1973, fit theoretical distributions to the use frequency data, and obtain the criticality of use in each case.