Monitoring the demand for the service: of academic libraries—the survey as a library management tool for capital services

A decision on the allocation of seating space within an academic library requires information on the complex pattern of behaviour of library users in relation to the services of that library. In a period of particularly stringent limitation on library funding, especially on the capital account, it might be argued that the constrained space within an existing library should be even more effectively managed than in the past. This would seem to justify a correspondingly more intense process of monitoring of the use and potential use of library services by library managers. The information obtained should be relevant to decision taking in that it is appropriate and immediate but at the same time as inexpensive as to justify its gathering.