The use of periodical literature in a Norwegian dental library

Periodical loans, photocopy requests, and reading room use of back volumes of periodicals at the University of Bergen Dental School library were registered during a twelve-month period. Loans were sorted by title and year, and titles were grouped by specialty and language. Total borrowing was 2.242, and the annual aging factor was 0.89 (half-life 5.8 years). Twelve periodicals accounted for 50% of total borrowing. While most specialized dental journals had a lower aging factor than dental journals as a whole, orthodontic journals had an aging factor of 0.92 (half-life 8.7 years). Non-English-language journals accounted for 22% of borrowing. Scandinavian-language titles (16% of borrowing) had a lower aging factor (0.87, half-life 5.1 years) and seemed to be used more as news journals. The languages of other journals used were German (4.7% of borrowing), French, and Russian.