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[–] 2 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I am curious now, how do they count library usage? I have been in our local one a few times and looked at some books but haven't registered there or taken any out because I haven't needed to. Makes sense for fiction but informational books I can just take notes or pictures and put the book back when I am done.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    They count those. My wife is a librarian and they track all sorts of metrics. Circulation of books is a big one but they count visitors too.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    So is that just number of times someone walks in then? The article said under a third use one but visitor count wouldn't tell you the difference of 100 people visiting once or 1 person visiting 100 times.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago*

    Yes. Everyone who walks in the door, even to use the bathroom. "The bathroom is an important library resource" she says. Everytime a person connects to wifi it gets noted regardless if you're in the building or not. If you pick up a book and put it down it gets counted as used/not checked out. She says some libraries track who borrows a pen. Librarians really like logging information.

    A good way to help your library is the next time you're there check out a bunch of books even if you don't read them. You can even just but them in the return bin on the way out. All this data makes its way back to the politicians who decide on the budget and higher library use and circulation helps them maintain their funding. And they don't really care if it's just the same guy, 100 library visits looks good for the library.

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