An Introduction to Library Statistics

The present book is intended for the students in Library & Information Science (LIS) who require to know about characteristics of numerical data and different methods of statistics so that they can easily collect, organize, present, analysis, compare and interpret their library related statistical data under any investigation. The book is also intended for the LIS professionals who need to understand the statistical techniques in order to help the researchers, or help themselves in their own pursuit of daily library and research work.

I have tried my level best to present the entire text consisting of seven chapters in such a manner that the interest of different categories of LIS students particularly give stress for those who are somehow lagging behind in library statistics is easily developed and the book can be used for self study. I hope to give them support so that library statistics becomes easier to learn. I have gone through the syllabi and examination papers on LIS of almost all universities in West Bengal where the library statistics or quantitative techniques is taught so as to make it as comprehensive as possible. A large number of questions and problems related to LIS are given at the end of each chapter under 'Exercise' head.

I express my heart-felt thanks to Sri Dipankar Banerjee of Gyandarpan for his cordial co-operation in bringing out this book in a nice form. I would like to express my deep sense of appreciation to the all staff of the book production unit of the Gyandarpan, in particular to Mr. Saroj Singh Roy (Bapi) for their excellent cooperation which I have received from them.

There are many people who have directly or indirectly helped in the completion of this book. The Librarians of various libraries I have consulted, friends, colleagues, well-wishers, the list endless. I am ever grateful to all these friends.

Finally, I am grateful to my wife, Manju, who had to undergo a lot of inconvenience on account of my prolonged involvement in writing the book and only son Swarnendu including other relatives for rendering me love, care and moral support to carry out the work smoothly.

Last but not least, I would like to thank God for being with me all the time and giving me courage to go through the tough times.

I firmly believe that the road to improvement is never ending. I shall look forward to and gratefully acknowledge all constructive suggestions received for further improvement in this text book.