Use of Circulation Statistics and Interlibrary Loan Data in Collection Management

ABSTRACT This article reports the use of “percentage of expected use” (Mills 1981) and “ratio of borrowings to holdings” (Aguilar 1986) to analyze data gathered from the automated circulation and interlibrary loan system of the central university libraries, Baylor University, Waco, Texas. The study, limited to circulating monographs with selected LC classification subclasses, revealed the areas of the collections attracting heavy usage and high interlibrary loan requests. The study concluded that although the libraries are meeting the needs of undergraduate and graduate programs, there is need for a closer scrutiny of some areas of the collection that attract less circulation and interlibrary loan requests.