Library Statistics

It’s an odd fact about me, but I actually enjoy working with statistics in Excel. Of course, there’s always such a thing as too much of a good thing, and that’s what I’m in now. Having to prepare 9 different spreadsheets (each with 6 separate sheets of data covering 12 months of time and 270 different categories) . . . it can get a bit old. What are the statistics covering? How many titles and volumes we’ll add to the collection, weed from the collection, and withdraw from the collection for the year, plus how many books, DVDs, CDs, etc the library has total. (For you non-librarians out there, allow me to explain:

Title–the entirety of a book, DVD set, etc.
Volume–the individual parts of a series, set, etc.
Thus, a five DVD set on the Wizard of Oz would be one title, but 5 volumes. A single DVD on the Wizard of Oz (just the film, for example), would be one title, and one volume.
Weed–when an item is taken from the collection due to low usage, dated information, etc.
Withdrawn–when an item is taken from the collection due to poor condition (moldy, falling apart)

Why do we keep track of all this stuff? So that we know what we have. Libraries need to know that sort of thing. It helps us compare ourselves to other libraries and know who’s winning.

Sure, my library is a bit small and a bit dated, but just wait until we land on Free Parking and get everyone else’s good books. Mwa ha ha!

In any case, when I leave this post at that and go no further, please blame the statistics, not me.