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August 18, 2008
Librarians admit to fiddling the figures-- er, you just fiddle the figures, its easy.
From Lis Pub Libs over the weekend
...#.When you bury deep you can find some locations where only 2 in 5 issues involve a member of the public ..other 'issues' are staff or housekeeping. I have come across locations where a staff of 9 are generating the same issues as a population of several thousand....one individual issuing and discharging the same item to himself twice a day for a month.
Nowadays methods have been found to create fake issues electronically ...generating 'issues' as part of a stock check..giving new stock an 'issue' to determine arrival at location...issuing stock to display..repairs etc etcSome of these customs have a very sensible housekeeping side to them ..but in practice few are ever filtered out to give a really honest figure of public use. I have come across Authorities which have encouraged staff to borrow a lot of stock to improve 'performance'. After all its a lot easier to create false stats. than to it is to spend real effort in encouraging increased use.Counting a renewal as an 'issue' is more legit. than the above practices. I have found collections where only one in 3 issues involve a member of the public!!!"
And then a correspondent says 'This reliance on stats has a mendacious effect on the public library service." No, sweetheart, the mendacity is on the part of the people who are lying, not the people who rely on the information to know how well their money is being spent.
And just because you believe the police do the same thing is not an excuse for librarians to do it... dear, oh dear.
Posted by Perkins at August 18, 2008 8:53 AM