Loan stats - going like a rocket!

At a teacher librarian conference last year, I heard Kevin Hennah speaking about applying retail merchandising principles and ideas to the presentation of school libraries.  We had already started on a number of projects in the library with the aim of sprucing up the space to make it more beautiful and useful, and so his ideas were additional useful food for thought.

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One thing he mentioned was keeping a close eye on loan statistics.  They don't tell the whole story, but they do give an indication of how things are travelling, given that research shows that a proportion of borrowing is, like buying in shops, impulse rather than deliberate.  So at the end of last week, I did a check on how we're going this year, comparing 2009 to 2008 to 2007.

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And the answer?  Wow!  Going like a rocket!  2008 was 30% higher than 2007.  2009 is 60% higher (than the same period so far in) 2008, and nearly triple the figure for 2007.

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There are multiple possible reasons for this, including:

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  library renovations (not expensive ones, but ones involving thought and imagination)
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  the Twilight effect - that series has brought some to reading who were not readers before
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  focus time at school during roll call, silent reading and literacy programs
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  more teachers bringing in classes to borrow
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  resources in the library meeting user needs

and probably more than that.  Also, there will be week by week variations, depending on school events (eg. nobody borrows on the day of the school swimming carnival).

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But it's great to look at those figures with satisfaction, and be keen as well to see if we can keep going.

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Overall last year, loans were up 20% on the year before, so that's a figure to aim for again in 2009.  We'll see!

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Can I encourage you, if you're a teacher librarian too, to check your loan stats and see what story they're telling you about your library?

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Image source: NASA (copyright free) found via Copyright-Free Photo Archive.

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