In the summer of 1984, seven Library of Congress subclasses in the Columbia-Greene Community College Library were surveyed to determine if past circulation records could reliably predict future circulation. In the summer of 1985, a follow-up study surveyed 10 Library of Congress subclasses to verify the results of the first study. The second…

This study tests the widely cited proposition that 20% of a library's books account for 80% of its circulation. Using data collected for a collection development survey, it was found that of the sample of 4,213 books, 799, or 19%, accounted for 79% of the circulation during 1987. In fact, 25% of the books accounted for all of the circulation that…