Evaluation of the usage of journals in a specialized public health library

Abstract

A study aiming at the use of periodicals was conducted at the School of Public Health Library, University of S. Paulo, Brazil, during a period of six months, in 1973/74, so as to identify the interest of the users. The total of journals borrowed was considered in this evaluation while local consultation and photocopying were not. The total number of users registered in the period of the study was, on average, 801 (11.4% corresponding to professors; 40.6% to students and 47.5% to other categories). The borrowed, journals were measured by kind of acquisition, category of users, date of publication, language and subject of the journals. Bradford's Law was adopted to measure the degree of frequency of the usage. This study reveals that the circulation was of 36.5% of the total titles of the Library' collection (1530); a core of journals supplies only 3.6% of total journals of the collection; 68.3% represent the subscribed journals; 72.5% was the demand of the Professors; 82.5% of use refers to volumes published in the last 5 years (1969-1973) and the use of English journals was of 61.2%.