Testing for markov-chain properties in the circulation of science monographs

摘要

The data for the study is based on the circulation history of the unique copy of science monograph titles obtained from The Ohio State University. Tests of the time independence of the circulation data revealed a time dependence in all of the 14 data sets. Tests of the Markovity of the circulation data where second order Markovity is assumed and first order Markovity is tested revealed 10 of the 14 data groups to be without Markovity.It appears from this study that direct tests of the Markovity of library circulation data should be conducted before models based on the assumption of Markovity are used.