Toronto Public Library

Regular Loans – Circulation Statistics

I place a title on hold, “2 copies 20 holds”. That’s OK, I am retired, no hurry. Either the Deer Park or the Eatonville branch copy will get here some day.

Days pass and a copy travels from Deer Park to my home branch (Yorkville Public Library), I check-out the book, take it home, bring it back, and drop it in the Returns slot. Everything works just as it should.

Who gets points for boosted Circulation Statistics?

(1) Both Deer Park and Eatonville, because both branches had the foresight to order and retain a copy of a book that is of value to readers. (Implicitly every branch must be prepared to comply with a hold request, so no points for making the copy available for a hold request)

(2) Deer Park gets points because they surrendered their copy, and incurred the labour in locating the book, labeling it, dropping it into the box for the pickup van, and so on. Deer Park incurred extra wear and tear on the book. Although the book happened to be the first of the two copies to be available, perhaps Deer Park users are better-trained in returning books, which increases the probability of Deer Park material being available.

(3) Yorkville Public Library because they have trained/encouraged their borrowers to make efficient use of this vast Distributed Warehouse System, reducing the need to carry inventory.

A book costs, say $30 to purchase retail. My guess is that the cost of Acquisitions Processing, Cataloguing, and other ancillary labour services bring the actual cost of a book to something of the order of several hundred dollars, so making best use of material is important.

My other guess is that for Toronto Public Library, the cost of ferrying books, per book ferried, is trivial compared to the cost of Acquisitions and Cataloguing, making efficient use of the distributed warehouse system a critical component of success.

Me, I’d assign five points to Yorkville Public Library, for having users who are well-educated to make use of the distributed warehouse system.

I’d assign three points to Deer park for actually supplying the material.

And I’d assign one point to every branch that maintains a copy (in this case, Deer park and Eatonville both gain an extra point).

In practice, whose circulation statistics get boosted when a Hold Request is satisfied?

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