Effects of a relegation programme on borrowing of books

Use of the monograph collection at Swinburne Library is reported for a six year period during which a relegation programme has been in operation. The programme has involved relocating books to stack and discarding. Loan history was the major criterion for relegation. Although 56,000 volumes have been removed from the open access collection of constant size (113,000 volumes) over the period, the number of loans from the open access collection has remained reasonably constant. There are no signs of unduly high demand for titles in the residual open access collection. There are about six calls per year for each 100 titles removed to stack. The same loan history criteria were applied to all parts of the collection in selecting titles for relocation to stack and there are few signs that inconvenience to library users has been greater in some subject areas than others. An attempt is made to estimate the effect of the stack location in itself on inhibiting borrowing. By good fortune titles have been recruited to the category of titles meeting the relegation criteria at a regular rate. The dynamics of this situation are not understood because it has not been possible to demonstrate a regular decline in borrowing with age for books in the Swinburne Library