CIRCULATION CONTROL
Library interest in automated circulation control is, in large part,
based on a long-standing awareness of the problems inherent in manual
circulation systems. These problems include labor-intensive and timeconsuming
recordkeeping work routines, inaccuracy, high personnel
turnover, an inability to generate statistics about circulation activity,
and the lack of an interface between circulation files and other library
files which contain much the same bibliographic data. Circulation
control is one of the most widely automated library operations, and it is
often the first and simplest activity to be automated in a given library,
possibly because circulation control systems bear an obvious resemblance
to inventory management, retail charge card operations, and
other transaction processing activities which have been successfully
automated in general business applications.
While specific circulation policies and procedures may be subject
to considerable local variation, the major component of circulation