It’s the not-so-secret weapon in the arsenal of many public libraries: the provision of DVDs–especially popular materials that compete with commercial services–helps drive circulation statistics.

But DVDs have an expiration date, to be supplanted by downloads and (especially) streaming video, and that poses a problem for libraries.

“If you’re a public library and you lose DVDs in 2015, and that’s 30% of your circ, you’re not going to be in good shape if you haven’t replaced your statistics with new measurements,” warned commentator (and Gale Cengage VP) Stephen Abram at a session yesterday.

He suggested tracking such things as interlibrary loan, website hits, and database results, but the strongest measure might simply be customer satisfaction, because that is “more important for value-based funding” and “tugs at the heartstrings.” (See Slide 23 of his presentation.)

He didn’t get into checkouts of digital video–a potential response but one that still requires adjustments and negotiation on technical, business, and DRM fronts.

It wasn’t just Abram. They were also talking about the DVD dilemma at Top Technology Trends, apparently.

And I even brought it up last night in a chat at the Library of the Year award event with Pat Losinski, executive director of the Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML), OH.

CML won its award not because of statistics, but thanks to innovative programs, programs that do make a difference in their community.

Losinski said CML is very aware of the changing landscape of library statistics.

I bet they start doing even more to measure the success of their programs.

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Visit ALA Annual Conference News for ongoing coverage of the conference by the editors of Library Journal and School Library Journal. Find shots of various ALA 2010 conference happenings on LJ’s Flickr page

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