Building Useful Collection Statistics from Scratch Collection Analysis 101 Building Useful Collection Statistics from Scratch Lisa Bobis Technical Services Manager, Joliet Public Library Matt Hammermeister ILS Manager, Pinnacle Library Cooperative

Who are We? Joliet Public Library Pinnacle Library Cooperative Population: 148,000 Collection: 431,000 items 2 locations 105 employees: 43 full time, 62 part time Annual budget: $6.5 million ILS: Polaris Pinnacle Library Cooperative 6 member consortium formed in 2012 1.3 million items 300,000 e-content 1 Staff Member

Setting Up the Collection For Prime Stats

Organizing Collection and statistical codes Think broad and go specific. Talk to staff to figure out what they want. Other considerations Developing collections Multiple formats Naming structure

Data cleanup Make sure call numbers match stat and collection codes. Get counts of items in each collection to make sure it’s worth creating that collection or stat code. Check format of Dewey Numbers Ongoing maintenance

Determine what stats Are needed

Factors to consider Monthly or yearly? Rolling, Fiscal, Calendar year? Compare Month to Month or Year to Year? Think about how specific? Dewey 10s By Format By Language Audience Multiple locations

Relative Use Ratio of the Percentage of Library’s circs vs. Percentage of Library’s holdings for each collection. Goal - 1:1 Ratio If a collection makes up 30% of holdings, it should make up roughly 30% of circs Greater than 1 – circs higher than holdings Consider increasing size of the collection Less than 1 – circs lower than holdings Consider weeding the collection or publicizing it better.

Turnover Rate The average number of circs per item in an area. (the number of circulations divided by the number of items) Example: A turnover rate of 10 for picture books would indicate that on average, each picture book checked out 10 times per year. Goals are library specific.

Active Use / Dead collection Percentage of Items that have been checked out recently (Active use) Percentage of Items that have not been checked out recently (Dead collection)

Average age Current year – Publication date = Average age Determine system for books that don’t have a publication date, like serial records or unknown pub dates)

Percentage checked out Percentage of items checked out at the time the report is run

How do you get the data?

Data Retrieval Polaris Sierra Simply Reports SQL Sierra Create Lists Anything that will allow you to raw get data out of the system easily Schedule the reports so the data comes when needed.

Circs Number of Checkouts in a particular section Can be used on its own or part of another calculation Monthly Circs Relative Use Turnover rate

Total Items Total number of items in a particular section Will be used in other calculations that use holdings data Relative Use Turnover Rate Exclude: Missing Lost Claims Returned On-Order In Processing

Relative Use Ratio of the Percentage of Library’s circs vs. Percentage of Library’s holdings for each collection. Data needed Circs Number of Items

Turnover Rate The average number of circs per item in an area. Data needed: Circs Number of Items

Active Use Percentage of Items that have been checked out recently Data needed: Items with recent circs Total Items in Section

Dead Collection Percentage of items that have no recent checkouts Data needed Items with no recent checkouts Total items in section

Average age The average age (in years) of each item in a section. Data needed: Total (Sum) age of all items in a section Total Items in section

How do you present your data?

Presentation Think about how you want to present the data Digitally? Printed out? Can your audience manipulate it? Have full access or just a copy? Emailed? Shared Drive? Etc. How often to update?

For Joliet… Monthly Updates Excel Formulas Pivot Tables Form controls for interactivity One worksheet for the source data One worksheet for each type of report

Demo

Getting buy-in by staff

Getting Buy-IN Support from Admin is key Expect to answer LOTS of questions Include definitions of terms Selector Summit Create benchmarks and have accountability Information overload

Resources Excel and SQL courses Colleagues Lynda.com YouTube Library collection Colleagues System Admin/ILS Staff/IT Staff IUG Forum

Questions? Lisa Bobis Matt Hammermeister Technical Services Manager Joliet Public Library lbobis@jolietlibrary.org Matt Hammermeister ILS Manager Pinnacle Library Cooperative mhammermeister@pinnaclelibraries.org