A Survey of Journal Use Within the Undergraduate Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

A survey was conducted from mid-January to mid-April 1980 in order to evaluate patterns of use for individual titles within the periodical section of the Undergraduate Library (UGL) of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Bound volume usage was measured by affixing self-adhesive markers to volume spines when reshelving, and later counting these markers. A total of 1,151 of the 7,281 bound volumes were marked. Considering the years 1950 to 1979, volumes from 1961 to 1979 satisfied 90.2 percent of user needs. Only 15 of the 45 titles held before 1950 were used. Current periodical usage was evaluated using a survey attached to all journal issues arriving in the library during the study period. A total of 517 surveys were retrieved from the 604 currrent issues received; 73 issues were lost. Undergraduate use of the periodicals was 75.2 percent; graduate use was 15.2 percent; and use by others was 9.6 percent. There were 3,187 uses by patrons, indicating an average of 6 uses per surveyed issue. The cost of conducting this survey was minimal. Appended to the survey report are a list of UGL journal holdings by title, and statistics of both bound volume and current issue usage for each title. Sample data collection and evaluation forms are also provided.