How to Compile and Analyze Reference Statistics Easily and for Free To the Cloud! How to Compile and Analyze Reference Statistics Easily and for Free Sonnet Ireland Faith G. Simmons University of New Orleans LUC 2011

The Way We Were... Originally, we used a printout sheet.   This sheet was always at the reference desk in the Learning Commons.   Sheets were also printed out for the Circulation desk.

The Problems... Messy--Was an absolute headache to compile and analyze   Incomplete - pages were either missing or never created.  Trying to use these sheets months later, it could be hard to figure out if a sheet wasn't created because there were no questions or because we were closed. With different access points throughout the library, many reference interactions went unmarked because of the inconvenience of the location of the sheet.  

Why GoogleDocs? Digital form--spreadsheets that can be used to calculate totals Can be accessed and updated by multiple people at the same time Free and user-friendly Security--multiple options for allowing access to the sheet

How it works... 1. Duplicate the template for the day.   2. Update statistics throughout the day. 3. Copy statistics from GoogleDocs into a stable spreadsheet. 4. Save the stable spreadsheet in Sharepoint (paid program) and Dropbox (free) 5. Use the stable spreadsheets to calculate the totals and analyze the data

CALCULATIONS Demonstration of GoogleDocs How many of you are  familiar with using Excel formulas?  

Benefits Hosted offsite--available anywhere with an internet connection   Multiple users can update the spreadsheet at one time Auto save Login options--password, or link, or username Published but not searchable Can export into a spreadsheet. Definitions of various interactions are spelled out in the sheet

Problems with Using Google Too many sheets (for too many days) can get messy   Sometimes there are errors in the formula after duplicating the template multiple times Communication--important that everyone is on the same page (numbers vs. tick marks; is phone virtual or in-person)

CALCULATIONS Demonstration of Sharepoint Advanced formulas for analysis.  

Why Dropbox? Free account offers 2GB of storage Saved across multiple computers and on the cloud Can be shared with multiple people Get even more storage with .edu email addresses

How Dropbox Works Go to Dropbox.com Create an account and download Dropbox on to your computer.  You can download it onto several computers (your work, your home desktop, your laptop, your iPad) with the same account. When you save a file, save it in a Dropbox folder.  This will save the file on any computer with your Dropbox account. Access the file from any of your Dropbox computers...or from another location, via Dropbox.com.   Any changes you make to the file will be automatically updated across all of your computers.

Dropbox Demonstration   Dropbox Demonstration

Questions? Resources GoogleDocs docs.google.com Dropbox dropbox.com Sonnet Ireland http://www.linkedin.com/in/sonnet Faith G. Simmons fsimmons@uno.edu