Circulation Control System
The circulation control system is one of the important components of any library system. The primary function of any circulation control system is to make available library materials including books and non-book materials to all customers as and when the demand arises without loss of time. In order that the collection of the library is made available to all the users, libraries must control the circulation effectively. The control must be based on sound principles.
The basic requirements of a circulation control system are to record items on loan, and to whom, to find and trap items requested by other users, and to indicate overdue items. For this purpose the libraries need to maintain records which specify:
- What material is in the library stock or could be readily obtained through other channels;
- Which material is on loan, and from whom or where it can be retrieved;
- When will the material on loan be next available in the library for other users; and
- What are the borrowers (users) and their- borrowing facilities.
Different libraries accord different priorities to these functions depending upon the extent and level of demand that they experience and the nature and urgency of the requests that they handle. Also, the materials and. the customers can be grouped and differentiated. For example, academic libraries operate short term loan collections for documents in great demand and also follow different loan periods for students and staff.
In addition to the basic functions mentioned earlier, many of the libraries like their circulation control system to:
- recognise and trap the reserved books on their return from loan;
- prepare overdue and mail notices;
- keep records of the number of books on loan to individual borrowers, and notify over borrowing harrowers;
- facilitate renewals;
- facilitate the calculation and collection of fines;
- collect issue statistics; and
- provide adequate management information.