Family Man Librarian

Yesterday I posted a query on the Web4Lib discussion list about wireless laptop usage in my library. Shortly thereafter I got an email from fellow UIUC GSLIS alum Jenny Levine, of The Shifted Librarian fame, asking if she could post the information I shared on the list on her blog. Click here to read her posting!

What I asked Web4Lib’ers was as follows. I’d love to hear from anyone who has comparative statistics:

“Taylor University’s Zondervan Library serves a mostly undergraduate student population of about 1,700. We have four wireless-enabled laptops available for checkout for general purpose uses including web browsing and library research. Our spring term is ending and out of curiosity I decided to tally up the circulation stats for them. It seemed by my observation that they were quite heavily used, in spite of the fact that we also have a large computer lab and several thin client workstations, but I wanted to know specifics. I found out that for the spring term (about 90 days in length), three out of the four laptops averaged close to 170 checkouts each. The fourth laptop was out of commission for most of the time. The total number of circulations for all of them was just under 500. I’m a mathematical ignoramus but I think that averages out to about 5 1/2 circulations per day. How does this compare with other libraries who circulate wireless laptops? I’m just curious to know if this is high, low, average.”