Just read an interesting article in the Library and Information Gazette about Library Hero A.W.McClellan who apparently wrote about using computer algorithms as an aid to systematic evidence based stock selection. (see Wendy Spink, An Early Stock Visionary in Library & Information Gazette, 25th March 2010. In Essex libraries, UK, where I used to work, statistics were gathered on book loans and reports were produced on loans per month by genre. The author argues that more complicated algorithms should be used to allocate budgets now that computers are more sophisticated. Its the sort of thing that Librarians use "rule of thumb" to do without realising that if they sat down and worked out the algorithms they could be a lot more precise and could justify their actions exactly to anyone who asked. Mclellan wrote 'Reflections on the use of statistics in public libraries' in the Library Association Record 52 6 June 1950 and 'The Reader, the Library and the Book' (Bingley) in 1973. G. Kerr's The need for evidence-based stock management' Library & Information Update, 5 (12) December 2006 pp34-35 suggests that his ideas could be used more.
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