Page 174 - DLIS007_LIBRARY AUTOMATION

Unit 9: Library Automation in Circulation Section

9.3.2 Charging and Discharging Functions Notes

Circulation is an activity whereby library materials are lent to borrowers and records of such
loan transactions are kept in an orderly way.

Notes This is an important basic activity of a service-library. It is this service that brings
users into direct contact with the operating system of the library.

Librarians have, therefore, spared no efforts in designing and developing efficient and economical
charging systems to give borrowers excellent service. Not only it is necessary to provide efficient
service to borrowers, but it is also crucial to maintain a reliable record of loan transactions to
know where a book is at any given point of time. This is essential in all types of libraries but
more so in academic libraries where certain titles are in constant demand.
An ideal charging system should therefore have the following capabilities – it should be able to:

identify the books that are charged, i.e., be able to ascertain whether a book is in the
library or out;
identify the borrower of a particular book;

identify when a book is due back in the library;
measure the extent of use of books, i.e., provide a permanent record of the number of
times a certain book has been circulated;

indicate the extent to which a reader is making use of the library’s borrowing facility, i.e.,
indicate the number and type of book a user has borrowed, etc.; and Indicate the number
of books circulated per day and also other subject wise circulation statistics.

Did u know? There are three categories of records on which circulation control is based.
These include: items of documents that are on loan; borrower’s list with all details including
books borrowed; time record linking the above two records.

The quality of operational competence is evaluated with reference to: speed, i.e., the issuing and
returning of books should be earned out with speed without sacrificing efficiency; economy,
i.e., the system should economise on staff, time, money, materials, plant and stationery; it’s
being foolproof, i.e., versatile in terms of identifying the whereabouts of a book; the smooth
flow of traffic, i.e., no congestion at the counter at any time, a minimum backlog, i.e., all the
filing should be done on the same day; and a minimum need for preparatory work.
A minimal circulation model is a set of procedures of record keeping with respect to only their
category, i.e., records of the materials held by a borrower. A total or complete system is one that
provides for all three categories of records. The earliest system, the ‘day book’ met the minimal
circulation requirements of recording the transactions. The ‘ledger’ system was an improvement
in that was a more orderly control of charges as opposed to the former. However this also did
not provide for identifying the books borrowed. It was the ‘dummy’ system which provided for
complete inventory control. Most of the later systems like Browne, Newark have incorporated
features which meet most of the requirements directly but the rest only indirectly. It is only the
computer based system that can meet all requirements.

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