Testing for Markov-Chain Properties in the Circulation of Humanities Monographs

The data for the study are based on the circulation history of the unique copy of selected humanities monograph titles obtained from The Ohio State University. Tests of the time independence of the circulation data revealed a time dependence in 13 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 11 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.