ERIC Number: ED449815
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 2000-Jan
Pages: 52
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
The Effect of a Poster, Display, and Recommended Listening List on the Circulation of Audiobooks in the Public Library.
Kucalaba, Linda
Previous studies have found that the librarian's use of book displays and recommended lists are an effective means to increase circulation in the public library. Yet conflicting results were found when these merchandising techniques were used with collection materials in the nonprint format, specifically audiobooks and videos, instead of books. This study attempted to determine whether the librarian's promotion of audiobooks would increase their circulation, and which merchandising technique would produce the preferred results: a greater increase in circulation. An experiment was conducted at four agencies of The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County to test the two-part hypothesis: the librarian's use of a poster, display, and recommended listening list would result in the increased library circulation of audiobooks; and the librarian's use of a display would produce the preferred results: a greater increase in circulation over the recommended listening list and the poster. To begin the experiment, normal audiobook circulation was monitored for a control pretest period of one month. Then a separate merchandising treatment--a poster, display, and recommended listening list-was placed at each of three different agencies; a fourth agency served as a control and used no promotional treatment at all. Again circulation was monitored for this experimental period of one month. The statistics generated revealed that there was an increase in audiobook circulation with the librarian's use of the display and recommended listening list, and the display did result in the greater increase in circulation over the poster and the recommended listening list. Yet when the data was analyzed, taking total branch circulation into consideration, the results were found not to be statistically significant. Therefore, the hypothesis could not be supported. The poster and recommended listening list are appended. (Contains 26 references.) (AEF)
Publication Type: Dissertations/Theses
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A
Note: Master's Research Paper, Kent State University. Includes colored poster and annotated bibliography on colored paper.