In this study, a use was not qualified. Any indication that a patron handled a book was
counted as one use. The library considered a book to be used if it was checked out, it was
renewed, or it was used in-house. All three types of uses were tracked separately. In-house
use was counted every time a book that was not checked out to a patron needed to be
re-shelved. Without documenting the extent to which an item was used by a patron, there was
no quantifiable way to justify weighting one use more than another. Just because one book
was checked out, and another was used in-house, did not imply that the checked out item was
used more than the one used in-house. Indeed, one inherent disadvantage in usage studies has
been determining how useful any particular item was to the patron. Therefore, the only
reasonable measurement standard was to count all types of use equally.