midterm

Circulation statistics, an easy measure to take, come back up in this article. Why are these problematic? What kinds of materials do they miss? What kinds of use and users do they miss?

"While this simplified picture of public library use and collection of library use statistics worked well when books were the primary medium of information transfer and communities were more homogeneous, this approach is not effective today as it ignores information that could be key in making critical decisions about today's public libraries." pg.29 People use libraries for a variety of media in addition to books. Some of this uses do not involve checking anything out from the library. "Research indicates that public libraries are vital in diminishing the information gap between the technical elite and the technical poor. Given the demographicsof this century's potential new library users, it is critical that public library decision makers have data that enable them to measure performance and use, and assess needs, in vulnerable and diverse neighborhoods." pg. 30 Computer use has become an important service offered by public libraries for people of low income who do not have computer access at home.
"The common practice of aggregating public library use statistics can mask particular usage patterns and unmet needs of minority of low-income neighborhoods." pg.31 Minority populations frequently do not have the same access to technology and subsequently have fewer computer and internet skills. This means that internet access is an important feature of the public library that is not recorded by circulation statistics.