[Publib] Low Circulation "Remedies"

[James Casey]

Dale offers some excellent ideas that may increase book circulation.
However, other measures of public use of the Library may be of equal
importance.  What you are already doing right may need to be examined
more closely.  Our Library has experienced growing traffic (as evidenced
by growing door counter readings), sharply rising attendance at programs
and community meetings held in the Library (over 50% in just one year),
and dramatic increases in interlibrary loan requests (+25%) through
direct patron placed holds.  Even our in-house use of periodicals
increased by 51% last month over October 2005.  Nevertheless,
circulation of books declined by 3% and has been sinking gradually
during the past 4 years.  The public wants - and expects - a different
mix of services.  We can't just "hang our hats" on circulation as the
prime measure of success anymore.  We have to look at different numbers.
Maybe there will never be a "common denominator" of success that can be
wrapped up in a statistical package as Mr. Hennen has tried to do in his
"rating of public libraries".  http://www.haplr-index.com/ratings.html
When our own Oak Lawn Public Library draws a rating of 713 and the huge
Chicago Public Library received a rating of only 302, Baltimore County
earns an 807 while the city of Baltimore Library (Enoch Pratt) is at
375, it is obvious that something isn't being counted.  Not all success
in a Library's service mission can be easily quantified.  However, it is
apparent that we need to try harder to find measures of success to match
changes in public demand.  Gone are the days when a youngster would walk
out of the Library with a pile of books checked out to do a term paper.
They go online and walk away with print outs instead.  The Library may
offer a quiet place to study, excellent band width and response time on
computer (or wireless) and excellent services on subscription.  We can
do our jobs and serve our patrons well without necessarily ringing up a
big score in circulation.  

 

James B. Casey - My own views.

Director of Oak Lawn Public Library

ALA Council Member 

 

________________________________

From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Dale McNeill
Sent: Monday, November 13, 2006 8:06 PM
To: Kim
Cc: Publib Publib Discussion
Subject: Re: [Publib] Low Circulation "Remedies"

 

Hi Kim--

Here are a few ideas from my years (since 1980!) in public libraries.
I'm assuming that you're working in a library....so, just think about
these from the librarian/library worker perspective if you're not.  In
general, people are reading more than ever, though not necessarily
fiction (but in many communities fiction is booming--and poetry is quite
popular in some libraries).  So, you are right to be concerned about
declining circulation.  These suggestions are from my time as a branch
manager at a library system in Texas, primarily, where circulation
increased from about 10-fold using these ideas. 

1) Ask people in the community.  Just make conversation in the grocery
store, the deli, while buying coffee.  It can be just this simple "You
know, I work at the library a few blocks away, and I don't think I've
seen you there (lately).  Did you know it's free?"  If there are some
common problems (hours, lack of selection, bad attitude from staff, that
sort of thing), you'll know pretty quickly.  Often low circulation is
simply an indicator of some other problem. 

2) Weed.  Weed a lot. Examine *every* book that hasn't circulated for
more than 3 years.  Look for trends.  Are certain authors no longer
popular?  Do you have out-of-date travel or civil service exam books?
What do the non-circulating books have in common?  Note: I am
recommending that you *examine* these books.  There may be reasons to
keep all, some, or a few of these items.  

3) Look at the books on the shelves.  Honestly, would you check them out
if you didn't work at the library?  Are the shelves too full?  Are the
books dusty or worn?  Are some books invitingly shelved face out?  Are
books too high or too low on the shelves for your customers to reach
them? 

4) Do you literally buy books that people want to read?  That is one
simple way, assuming you can allocate some funds to it, to involve
people in the library.

5) Carefully examine use of the collection by broad areas, let's say:
picture books, children's fiction, children's nonfiction, teen fiction
adult fiction (maybe divided into a couple of genres), adult nonfiction,
DVDs, recorded music, recorded books.  Now, compare these usage figures
with budgets.  You might want to make some changes. 

6) Every time a customer checks out a book, have staff ask "Did you find
_everything_ you were looking for?" or  "Did you know you can reserve
books for free?" or "Is there anything else we can find for you today?".
A question like that, asked of every customer can, in my experience,
increase circulation by 5% to 10%--assuming staff weren't asking before.


7) If there's a bookstore in your community, visit it often.  Notice
what people are reading and browsing.  I made a lot of very popular
magazine selections this way over the years.

8) Thinking of magazines, consider multiple subscriptions to popular
magazines.  In a branch library in which I used to work, I had 5
subscriptions to _Muscle and Fitness_, for example.  I circulated all of
them, even the current issue--as no one came to the library to read this
magazine.  From those 60 items (5 copies x 12 issues), I usually got
1500 to 2000 circulations in a year.  Not many other 60 items in my
library could do that.  This was, by the way, a 2000 square foot
library. 

9) Every single time someone asks for a (real) book, offer to get the
book in some way--ILL, purchase, whatever you can offer.  Or look it up
in WorldCat and let the customer know where it is.  The library should
be the *first* place people think of for books.  

10) I hid this down here because I know it's been the topic of
conversation a lot on this list....but, if you have all adult fiction
interfiled, *consider* dividing it into genres.

11)  Ask a friend (maybe start with a librarian) to look for a book in
your catalog and find it in the library.  Have them evaluate the
experience.  You may find that it's just not that easy to find
materials. 

12) Ask the staff for ideas--make anything fair game. My staff suggested
eliminating my desk (I was the only adult librarian) and replacing it
with a table for the public. Great change--not in every library, but any
means, but in this one.  My staff also suggested adding black & white
movies--which were wildly popular.  They knew that people had asked for
them; I didn't. 

13) Make an attractive sign "Just Returned" and put it on a booktruck.
Fill the top shelf--and only the top shelf--with material that has just
been returned.  Much of that material will go out the same day it's
returned--increasing circulation and saving shelving at the same time. 

14) Emphasize to your community--especially in poor communities--that it
really is important for books to be checked out.  That's the way you
know which ones are popular.  I would talk to people using a family
restaurant as an example: " f you have pot roast, enchiladas, and cold
potato soup--and no one ever orders pot roast, would you keep it on the
menu?  That's how we know what you're interested in so we can get more
like it."  In many libraries one couldn't do this, but I would there
encourage poor people to check out books and return them on the same day
(make sure this counts as circulation in your system).  I would give
them a printout showing that their account was clear when they left.
Poor people understand this.  If they know you're counting on them, it
makes a big difference.  On the other hand, in a wealthy community, you
should also remind people who use the library often that the library is
like a retail store--and its success is judged by its "sales". 

15) Talk about the libary--outside the library.  Go to civic groups,
church groups, PTA meetings, local history meetings, any where you can.
Just talk about the basic services.  Smile.  Laugh.  Often you'll get
lunch and a few new customers. 

16) If other staff are comfortable, make a little display of books they
like.  We had an end-cap shelving unit with 4 shelves.  There was a
current and a childhood picture of each staff member (yes, there were 4
of us) on each shelf.  On that shelf, we each put a few adult and
children's books that we liked.  Mostly these were older titles.
Generally we re-stocked this display several times a day.  We each had a
loyal following. 

17) Look at demographic information for your community.  Then look at
your customers.  Who's missing?  The very young?  The very old? A
particular race?  Men?  Women?  Speakers and readers of a particular
language?  Target that missing group with information about the library.
(Oh, and here's an important one--is your population decreasing?  If so,
that might be the core of the problem.) 

I think all the above can be summarized as: really know your community,
involve staff, and market your merchandise.  Also, if you are planning
to greatly increase usage, you really need to think about what that
means to every aspect of the library.  Will you get more staff if you're
checking out twice as many books?  What about 5 times more? How can
staff prepare themselves?  How will schedules change?  What will you
need to stop doing, if you greatly increase circulation? 

I hope these suggestions give you some ideas.  All of them have worked
for me, but you have to think about your own library.  Of course, not
all will work in all libraries.  

Best wishes,

Dale

On 11/13/06, Kim <kimreadthis at gmail.com > wrote:

I was wondering what libraries have done (or are doing) in response to
a low circulating adult fiction/nonfiction collection.

--How have you defined "low" circulation?
--What has worked/what hasn't in increasing circulation figures?
-----Has anyone tried an adult summer reading program in an attempt to 
ameliorate the low circulation figures?

Thank you for any input,
Kim
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