In my role as bibliographer/selector, I use information about
past book usage (both print circulation and electronic usage) to
help make decisions about purchases of new editions, additional
volumes in a series, additional titles in a particular specific
subject area, etc. The e-book usage can sometimes indicate
whether a particular community is "ready" to rely on e-books in
their subject areas, guiding format decisions for future
purchases. Collection development (at least as I practice it) is
a subjective art, but one that I try to supplement with more
objective information to support my decisions.
Andrea Twiss-Brooks
Co-Director, Head of Collection Services, Science Libraries, and
Physical and General Sciences Bibliographer
email: atbrooks@uchicago.edu
John Crerar Library, University of Chicago, 5730 S. Ellis
At 06:08 PM 2/13/2007, Sandy Thatcher wrote:
Excuse my ignorance, but would someone please explain to me why anyone
cares about usage statistics for books?