Peter Alison and Cathy Porter were both on the board of the local library and they agreed to meet for a cup of coffee at the Kirkland Café prior to meeting at 7:00pm.

Cathy started the ball rolling. “I was looking at the materials they mailed us last week and was stunned to see the decline in terms of the number of individual books borrowed in the first three months of this year. The report shows 19% decrease when compared to January through March of last year.”

“That figure struck me as well,” Peter replied. “It was so unexpected. The last three months of last year showed very little drop off from the previous year. So, the question is: what do we do about it?”

“I think we need to do some research to find out what is going on and, since you and I are the only two members of the board who are likely to think in term of research, I suggest we come up with an approach so that we can propose a specific plan of action.”

Peter thought this was a good suggestion and they spent the remainder of their time at the café batting back and forth some ideas as to how they night resolve the “mystery” and whom they might contact in order to gain information.

Question 1: what external factors might have caused this substantial decline in borrowing in the first three months of the year?

Question 2: if you were to make three telephone calls to gather information, whom would you call (if you were either peter or Cathy)? And what would you ask them?

Question 3: assuming the library’s record keeping is computerized, what additional information (beside the total number of books borrowed) would you want to obtain from the head librarian?