The Second Floor Librarians

I love to look at our collection statistics.  Which books did go out?  Which did not?  Although I love to ponder these numbers as insights into the collective psyche of  Benton County, the statistics can sometimes be misleading.  For example, I ran a report of our fiction collection (not the new books) to see which items circulated the most last period (July 2008-July 2009).  I was somewhat suprised to see some big names missing.  After a moment I realized that many of the big names would be missing because we often purchase multiple copies of their titles.  For example we purchased 25 copies of Janet Evanovich’s Finger Lickin’ Fifteen to meet the overwhelming demand for this book.  So although the best sellers  would top the list of high circulating items as a group they would not top the charts as individual items.

The other problem with the statistics is that some of these titles were on the new book shelf for part of last period.  These would have higher circulation rates because new books have 2 week circulation period.  New books are returned and go out with greater frequency.

So all that said, the following books had the highest circulation rates for last period.  These titles were not necessarily blockbusters but the steady workhorses of our collection.  The best thing is that many are back on the shelves (as I write this) and ready to be checked out again.

Perhaps by you .