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Library book borrowings decline: Open University study 

14 May 2021

  • Library collection evaluation urged 

  • Recommend budgetary acquisition priority to in demand subject material 

By Ruwan Laknath Jayakody    Annual library book borrowings have been declining for many subjects over a five year period in the recent past along with the number of borrowers, thus showing a downward trend in the circulation of books, a recent Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) based analysis found.  Books on the subject of education were the only subject category which showed an increasing trend from 2014 to 2018 while the highest numbers of borrowings were reported in the subcategories of Sinhala and English literature, engineering, management, law and education. The number of borrowers has also declined from 2014 to 2018.  It was therefore recommended to develop an active lending collection in the OUSL library for users including both students and staff and that accordingly, in the budgetary allocations for the acquisition of books, the library must give priority to the subject areas of Sinhala and English literature, engineering, management, law and education.  These findings and recommendations were made by the OUSL Assistant Librarian, M.M.I.K. Marasinghe in an article titled Trend analysis of library book circulation of the OUSL (the foremost educational institution that provides open and distance learning within the university system) which looked at the pattern of the circulation of books during the 2014-2018 period, the subject wise variation of user demand, and internal factors affecting the rate of the borrowing of books, and which was published recently in the Journal of the University Librarians Association of Sri Lanka.  As noted by Marasinghe, the systematic evaluation of the existing collection of a library is important to guide the taking of economically effective management decisions (regarding policies pertaining to collection acquisition, discarding, preservation, remote storage, and allocating space for materials) in the development of the collection to make it relevant to the users as the library budget and existing space are some of the main limiting factors in expanding library resources and services. Furthermore, as emphasised by Marasinghe, the development of an effective library collection is an important factor which determines the quality of the library as the main objective of any library is to provide the right information for the right person at the right time.  In this regard, Marasinghe mentioned that several past studies have used book circulation related data in attempts made to improve the development of the collections of libraries and to make decisions on what should be given the highest priority and the least priority.  In the Evaluation of library resources in the field of economics: a case study (1995), D. Carpenter and M. Getz examined which subjects in the Vanderbilt economics collection had the highest percentage of books published during a specific year that had completely failed to circulate.  J.N. Ochola in the Use of circulation statistics and interlibrary loan data in collection management (2002) examined the average circulation and the ratio of interlibrary loan borrowings to holdings in the Baylor libraries in order to decide how to reallocate collection resources.  J.E. Knievel, H. Wicht and L.S. Connaway in the Use of Circulation Statistics and Interlibrary Loan Data in Collection Management (2006) used interlibrary loan data, average circulation, and the percentage of items that circulated during a specific period in order to inform collection development on a subject level, and further suggested a study to examine the books by reference to the publisher or language as well as by the subjects.  Monograph circulation over a 15-year period in a liberal arts university (2011) by S. Cheung, T. Chung and F. Nesta concluded that the book checkouts rise each year during the first five to seven years of a book’s arrival, and stabilise afterwards.  In Marasinghe’s study, a quantitative research approach was followed, for which secondary data was taken from the main library management system. The classes and subjects considered were i) computer science, information and general work, ii) philosophy and psychology, iii) religion, iv) social sciences (subcategories included 1) law, 2) education, 3) social science, 4) economics, and 5) political science), v) language, vi) science, vii) technology (subcategories included 1) engineering, 2) management, 3) medicine and health, 4) agriculture, and 5) home and family management), viii) arts and recreation, ix) literature (subcategories included 1) other literature including Sinhala, 2) English and old English literature, 3) literature, rhetoric and criticism, 4) German and related literature, and 5) Spanish and Portuguese literature), x) history and geography, and xi) arts and recreation, and all book transactions during the period were used in the study.  In terms of the total number of annual borrowings, it showed a decreasing trend with 2018 recording a huge decrease (12,362 book borrowings - 25.9%) when compared with 16,676 book borrowings in the previous year of 2017. A similar trend was seen when comparing 2016 with 2015, where 2016 recorded 17,806 book borrowings whereas 2015 recorded 23,592, and with regard to book borrowings, this amounts to a negative annual growth rate (of minus 24.53%).  It was also found that there was no correlation between book borrowings and the number of days on which the library was closed.  Marasinghe opined that the reasons that the annual book borrowings decreased could have been due to a fewer number of persons borrowing books or the same number of borrowers taking out a fewer number of books.  In this regard, it was found that the number of book borrowers too had decreased during the period with a massive decrease seen in 2018 (1,583 borrowers) when compared with 2017 (1,998), amounting to a 20.77% decrease.  The research revealed that the changing pattern of the number of book borrowers is quite similar to the changing pattern with regard to the number of book borrowings.  The study results indicated a strong positive relationship between annual book borrowings and the number of annual book borrowers. This significant relationship, as pointed out by Marasinghe, suggests that the reduction and declining rate of book borrowings is affected by the decreasing number of book borrowers.  Subject wise, it was found that literature (24%), followed by technology (23%) and the social sciences (20%) had the highest demand while the least demand was for religion (2%), history and geography (2%), and arts (0.6%). Under literature, Sinhala literature followed by English and old English literature had the highest book borrowings, which according to Marasinghe, indicated that books on Sinhalese fiction, drama, poetry, essays, and speeches, including in several languages, were among the most in demand books, and that it shows a high level of motivation among borrowers for leisure related readings. On the flipside, the demand for German, Spanish and Portuguese literature was less. However, overall, literature in all its subcategories, showed a decreasing trend during the period.  Under technology, the subcategories of engineering and management were the most popular. Here too however, all technology related subcategories showed a decreasing trend during the period.  In the social sciences, law was the most in demand but the borrowing pattern pertaining to law showed considerable variation during the period. The borrowing of books on education however showed an increasing trend during the period. The other subcategories under the social sciences including social science, economics and political science showed a decreasing trend. Once again however, all social sciences related subcategories with the exception of education showed a decreasing trend during the period.  In terms of online visits by users of the OUSL main library, according to the University’s Statistical Handbook of 2017, visits to the main library website had increased from 255,600 in 2016 to 269,000 in 2017.  Since library user and information seeking behaviours have shifted from the use of printed resources to the use of vast online information resources that are available, Marasinghe was of the view that increasing the availability of online information resources, therefore, has a great impact on the reading behaviour of library users.  In terms of the limitations of the study, Marasinghe pointed out that the analysis of library book borrowing does not produce a complete picture of the usage of the library’s information resources as it does not perfectly measure the usage of the library's printed information resources. It must also be noted that there might be certain instances where some books are borrowed and returned without being read, while certain other readers may keep and hold onto books for a long period of time thereby hindering the opportunity available for others to use those books.  “In the digital era, the proliferation of information sources and easy access to information sources turn away readers including library users from printed materials to online information sources. Therefore, the decreasing rate of both book borrowers and book borrowings are major challenges faced by libraries,” Marasinghe explained.


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