I had a debate at work at whether we should stock the library depending on books that people request or stock it independent of requests. I have a hunch that a majority of the people who visit libraries BROWSE through the available books and pick the ones that they find interesting. The number of people who walk into a library with one or books in mind might be a minority.
Are there any surveys or statistics available on this?
Less than before. Probably 10% now. Most people go to the library to either use the restroom, read the newspaper/magazines, or use the Internet.
37.66% (repeating)
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32.6%. I did the research and the math.
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i doubt there could be a survey, think about do you think a library would have a poll up about it, so sorry cant really help you there
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I’ve never gone without a particular book in mind. Usually it’s for research and I need to check out obscure books on a topic I can’t afford or want to purchase the books, many of which aren’t even sold in book stores cuz they are not popular or cheap or whatever. But once i’m there on rare occasions I’ll skim through some titles to get a book for fun. If they stocked it based on popular titles and requests book stores would go out of business and they’d have to double the size of libraries eventually going broke considering it’s nonprofit and expensive to run. Why should my tax dollars go for someone else’s entertainment? Public libraries are for research purposes first.
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But if a lot of people are requesting a particular book, you should stock it really.
I usually only use the library for non-fiction, research purposes, and then that’s particular information I’m looking for, the book is just the vessel.
But back when I didn’t have a well-stocked home library, I would go to a library to just browse. I am a voracious reader and will read anything. If I had a list of books I wanted to read, it would be so long!
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Less than before. Probably 10% now. Most people go to the library to either use the restroom, read the newspaper/magazines, or use the Internet.
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Well, based on my experience working at a library I think that the number of individuals who visit the library for a specific book versus browsing the available books might differ based on time of year.
Right now, we get a lot of students looking for specific books that their teachers have assigned them. Many students are also looking for specific topic.
Generally, the most common questions I receive are about a book by title, then author, then subject. Though there are many individuals who go straight to the shelves and don’t ask for help, so I don’t know whether they came for a specific book or are browsing. If I had to guess, based on my experiences I’d say the majority, greater than 50%, visit the library for something specific and then choose to browse.
I looked in some professional databases but I couldn’t find any published survey’s regarding this topic. I’m sure there are somewhere but I couldn’t find it during the time I looked.
As for stocking the library based on requests or not, I think it should be a mix of both.
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