The Effect of a booklist on the circulation of fiction books which have not been borrowed from a public library in four years or longer

by Nancy B. Parrish
Masters thesis, University of North Carolina, 1986.

Hypothesis accepted: Booklists will significantly increase circulation of books which had not been borrowed in four years or longer.

Experiment supporting hypothesis

Location: Lexington Library in Davidson County Public Library System

Groups:

• Experimental group: 35 titles (39 copies) that had not checked out in at least 4 years listed on unannotated booklists entitled "Fiction for Winter Reading" on brightly colored paper.
• Control group: 32 titles (40 copies) that had not checked out in at least 4 years

Experiment:

• Pre-test period: no set time, just number of circulations before the test period.
  
• Test period: January 13 to March 10, 1986, 1,000 booklists were distributed: 800 copies were inserted in checked out books, 100 copies were on a stand-up display at the circulation desk, 100 copies were at the reference desk with other brochures.

Results:

Unannotated booklists increase circulation 120% over regularly shelved books.



891 booklists were distributed from three locations.

• 800 through check-out
• 63 from the stand-up display at the circulation desk
• 28 of 100 copies from the reference desk

Even though the reference desk distributed the least number of booklists (28), those booklists accounted for 67% check-outs of books on the list because one individual with a reference desk booklist checked out 10 of the books. Nevertheless, even when this person's checkouts are not counted, check-outs from the reference booklist still equals the check outs from the 800 booklists placed in checked out books. This finding deviates from earlier studies claiming the best method of distributing booklists is placing them in checked out books.