T. Lafouge et E. Guinet, A new explanation of the negative binomial law and the Poisson law with regard to library journal circulation data, J INF SCI, 25(1), 1999, pp. 89-93
This paper presents a mathematical model using probability in order to expl
ain the case of library circulation data. In particular, we model the distr
ibution of use of the articles according to their distribution in scientifi
c journals. We have already undertaken similar work with a geometrical law
[6]. The 'no use' of articles is an important aspect of the question of dat
a now. When the weight of 'no use' became important, we obtained a result w
hich appears quite surprising: the distribution of used articles is a geome
trical distribution too. What follows is an investigation of whether the mo
del of Poisson and negative binomial distributions are valid.