Research questions:
- Does circulation from fiction shelves decrease with increasing distance from room entrance? Is the circulation decline Shaw discovered in his library also apply to other libraries?
- If yes, is the circulation decrease related to the size of library? If readers are more able and willing to walk to the back of smaller libraries than larger libraries, then the decline in circulation should be smaller in smaller libraries.
- Summary of "The Influence of sloping shelves on book circulation" by Ralph R. Shaw
The Library Quarterly, Vol. 8, #4, October 1938, pp. 480-490.
- Fiction circulation will decrease the further shelves are from the room entrance.
- Percentage of circulation decline will increase with the distance from the front to the back of the library.
- Prerequisite: This experiment is for libraries with at least 5 fiction ranges parallel to the front door. The shelves used in this experiment must contain general fiction or the same genre. Do not use shelves with different collections of genre, e.g., a collection of mysteries at one end and westerns on the other end.
- Print out "Does distance from the entrance effect circulation from shelves?" experiment worksheet.
- On page 2 at the top of worksheet:
- Write your library name.
- Measure the distance from the front door to the back wall closest to the fiction section. Write in this measurement at the top of the worksheet.
- For row called “Fiction aisle closest to the front door,” measure the distance in feet from the front door to the aisle opening closest to the front door. Write in the far-right column this measurement.
- For the row called “Fiction aisle furthest from the front door:”
- Count the number of aisles from the first aisle to this last aisle and write the number in column 1 after “Aisle # ___.”
- Measure the distance in feet from the front door to the aisle opening. Write in the far-right column this measurement.
- Use one of three ways of counting circulation from these aisles
- If you hand stamp your books at check out and your stamp gives the year of checkout, then you can pull a selection of books from the shelves in the two aisles and count the circulation. I recommend starting with the second section in and pulling the first and last books from each shelf on both sides of the aisle.
- If your library is automated, then count the circulation starting with the call number of the first book and ending with the call number of the last book.
- If you can use neither of these methods, count every book reshelved in these two aisles for four months.
- To receive credit for completing this experiment either email as an attachment this completed worksheet or the completed worksheet called "Exp4Distance" in the Excel spreadsheet to Chris Rippel.
- Chris Rippel will test hypothesis two and three above using the data from several libraries.