Research Article: “Mining and Analyzing Circulation and ILL Data for Informed Collection Development”

The following approved for publication preprint is scheduled for publication in the September 2015 issue of College & Research Libraries.

Title

Mining and Analyzing Circulation and ILL Data for Informed Collection Development

Authors

Forrest E. Link
The College of New Jersey
Yuji Tosaka
The College of New Jersey
Cathy Weng
The College of New Jersey

Source

C&RL Website

Abstract

In order to investigate quantitative methods of collection use analysis employing the types of library data that are extractable in the reporting modules of modern ILS and ILL systems and to better understand library collection use and user needs, the authors extracted circulation and ILL records from the library’s systems using data mining techniques. By comparing these data to records of books acquired in a four-year period, the study reveals generally good collection use as well as some unmet collection needs and offers a method of compiling and sharing these multiple types of usage data among work groups to create feedback mechanisms to inform the work of selectors and suggest modifications to the workflows of acquisitions and ILL.

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