Abstract:
The Jakub Kolas Central Science Library of the Academy of Sciences of Belarus has a vast
experience in the research of the library holdings. Research of library objects can be effective only
when it is comprehensive and constandy supervised. Monitoring allows to systematically supervise
library work, to analyze library procedures and operations, to be alert to their changes, to predict their
development and to forestall any negative tendencies. Library monitoring differs from the usual library
research. Monitoring is both a standard evaluation of objects and situations and a flow of information
which is processed by a standard set of indicators. Starting 1990, the Department of Scientific
Organization of Main Stock has been implementing a yearly monitoring of the composition and the
usage of the collection of Belarusian and foreign periodicals and serials. The article discusses the
methods of monitoring and the achieved results.
