Library Effectiveness: A Systems Approach is an experimental attempt to apply the analytic methods of operations research – systems analysis – to the operating problems of the library. It is addressed to the problem of library service (the library as an information storage and recovery system) and defines the major task of most modern libraries as that of providing materials desired by library uses as a quickly to a compatible with the library budget. Library operations, the author points out, essentially involve interactions between units of information (books, periodicals) and seekers of information (library users); therefore the library must achieve a balance between the opposing requirements of storing an increasing collection of printed material and maintaining an immediate and easy access to the most-used part of this material. This book suggests measures of effectiveness for various aspects of library operations and indicates ways by which they can be evaluated, In a series of examples the author shows how these measures can be used by the librarian to improve library servicemen to plan future operations, and describes where the computer will be of assistance and how it can be used to obtain more accurate and current data measures of library effectiveness.
This work focuses on the pattern of book use, its change over time, and the thought of evaluating and estimating the degree to which the library does or does not satisfy the seeker of information. For it is necessary that librarians that librarians learn, just as manages of mercantile, military, and industrial operations are learning, to gather and use such data as how often will the library user consult catalogues and other reference material and how long he will use them, before computerized data-processing equipment is introduced in library operations for the application of modern techniques in the theory of probability to reduce the cost and time involved in keeping a running record of data, thus presenting wastage and loss of library utility as use patterns change and publications increase.
Library Effectiveness is structured so that the reader can see in the first part how the methods and point of view of operations research can be used to learn more about library behavior. The choice of predictive models determines to a large extent the nature and amount of data required,, and the author begins by introducing a number of theoretical models and concentrating on analytical aspects less familiar to the librarian, In the second part an actual specimen – the science Library at M.I.T. – is chosen to show how theory can assist the managing librarian. While the use of probabilistic models of operation can drastically reduce the amount of data still have to be garnered by the librarian to make the most accurate predictions and decisions.
Because the subject matter of this book is relatively undeveloped, the author gives a few examples of the method of operations research in some detail, in hopes that the theoretical models will be extended and other models developed. He remarks that the book will have achiever its purpose “if more data can be collected, and less approximate mathematics developed, which eventually supersede most of the formulas presented...”
