Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

It's that time of year again: annual statistics gathering. Our public library is government-funded and as such, we must justify our drain on the public coffers by compiling statistics. Not enough numbers and we may face a budget cut. Lots of numbers and we can use them as a prop when campaigning for a bigger slice of the pie.

What it boils down to is each and every library worker will be marginally less efficient this week, as we stop to make ticks in boxes on sheets of paper affixed to various surfaces throughout the library. I think I may have read too many Terry Pratchett books (never! sacrilege!) but I have a mental image of a god of statistics laughing maniacally, growing in size and power with each scratch of the pen on those tally sheets.