Selecting stock
The two main drivers in stock selection are the current demands of the borrowers and the current stock available.
The current demand has to be audited. This is relatively simple when an automated library system is being used. In fact, it is possible to be overwhelmed by the available statistics from an automated system. So a careful approach is required in deciding which categories, fiction genres and authors to run statistics on.
This information on borrowing can be compared with the current stock provision. Broadly speaking there should be a match between the two. Thus looking at the detective genre, if the books by two popular authors show a great disparity such that the books by author X are on loan five times as much as author Y, there may be a good case for purchasing more copies of the books by author X.
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Before proceeding, think of circumstances where this may not be valid |
Let's have a look at Factors affecting demand ...
