I've worked in libraries that have baskets on the tables near magazine and newspaper shelving.  There are signs indicating that all magazines should be placed there rather than back on the shelf.  Every couple hours, a staff member empties the baskets and scans these as "used" in the automated system or just makes a tally mark under the magazine's name on a piece of paper to keep track of what is being used.  That way the magazines don't stay in the baskets too long and they can be reshelved regularly.

Jocelyn Baldwin, MLIS
jmb.mlis@gmail.com


On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 4:31 PM, Andrea Mucha <amucha@cityofwarren.org> wrote:

We have a user account set up as 'inhouse'.  Any items left out on tables, placed at the ends of shelves, etc are checked out to 'inhouse', discharged, and sorted to shelve.  Each inhouse check out shows up in our system as a checkout.  This method doesn't differentiate between regular checkouts and inhouse, but it is something.

 

Andrea Mucha

Office Assistant

Warren Public Library

Dorothy M Busch Branch

23333 Ryan Road

Warren MI 48091

(586) 755-5750

(586) 756-4292 Fax

http://www.warrenlibrary.net/

 

From: michlib-l-bounces@mail.mcls.org <michlib-l-bounces@mail.mcls.org> on behalf of Kelli Perkins <kperkins@herrickdl.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 1:05 PM
To: michlib-l@lists.mcls.org
Subject: [Michlib-l] Magazine Use
 

Has anyone found an effective way to count magazine use beyond circulation? Since this is such a browsing collection, I haven't found a way to determine how much use individual titles get from browsers who don't check them out. Ideas? I have seen fancy mechanisms that physically count how many times something is lifted from the shelf, but I'm looking for a more low tech solution!


Kelli Perkins
Head of Reference Services
Herrick District Library
300 S River Ave, Holland MI 49423

Reading: "Sycamore Row" by John Grisham
Listening: "Pilgrim's Wilderness: A True Story of Faith and Madness on the Alaska Frontier" by Tom Kizzia

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