THE COLLECTION OF LIBRARY STATISTICS FOR SUPPLIER EVALUATION - A USER-FRIENDLY GUIDE

In the light of recent economic constraints and a rapidly changing, if not volatile, publishing industry, supplier evaluation is a critical component of library collection development and management. The paper presents a number of guiding principles considered important in the co llection of library statistics with a view to supplier evaluation. It identifies approaches to descriptive statistics; presents some helpful guidelines for decision making based on descriptive statistics; and d iscusses some issues relating to selecting a sample and establishing a n appropriate sample size.