Libstats: Overview & Demo

Hilary Rudsenske and Rachel Vacek,Walker Management Library,Vanderbilt UniversityAugust 15, 2007

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Outline• Overview• Demo• The Walker Management Library Experience• Individual Library Considerations• System-wide Library Considerations• Reports

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What is Libstats?• Created by the University of Wisconsin –

Madison Libraries• System for tracking library statistics and

questions at a service point • Open-source• Web-based access anywhere• Password protection• Advanced search

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Libstats Customizations• Administrative side

– Create multiple libraries and multiple users in each library– Can adjust fields:

• Location• Patron Type• Question Formats• Question Types• Time Spent Options

– Can define terminology• User side

– Change preferences– Database remembers user info

Libstats Demo

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Walker Library ExperienceGoals

– Collect more detailed information about library use

– Gather data about how staff spend their time– Streamline current statistic reporting process

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Walker Library ExperienceStaff Concerns

– Too time consuming– Too complicated– Will forget to use it– Too busy to learn something new– Afraid of new technology– Don’t like change

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Walker Library ExperienceInitial Test

– Information Services data only • No Access Services data

– Two weeks• March 1-15, 2007

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Walker Library ExperienceTrial Implementation

By mimicking our already existing paper and hash mark process and categories we were able to:– Ensure we collected necessary ARL statistics– Finish out the FY with the same statistics we had

been collecting all year and previous years– Eased the adoption of the new technology by

lessoning the staff learning curve

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Walker Library ExperienceTrial Outcomes

Information Services staff:– Found the software easy to use– Unanimously agreed to adopt the software and no

longer collect statistics on paper– Requested that we refine our categories, capture

more data and utilize the knowledge base

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Walker Library ExperienceSteps to Implementation

– Refined the “Time Spent” field– Added a new question format (IM)– Added additional “Patron Types”– Began to utilize the knowledge base by inputting the

nature of questions and (at times) answers– Began creating Best Practices for statistics and Libstats

use

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Walker Library ExperienceImplementation Outcomes

– Able to capture additional information and statistics such as:

• Time spent on questions• Nature of questions/knowledge base

– Can capture a history of the desk• Has it been busy?• What assignments are being worked on?• Has the printer been acting up?• Has one of my faculty members been in?

– Training tool

– Collection development

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Walker Library ExperienceImplementation Outcomes

– Able to access statistical reports quickly• No longer need to manually input hash marks

to Excel• Pivot tables allow slicing and dicing of data

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Walker Library ExperienceChallenges

– Would like to capture even more transaction detail– Would like to be consistent with previous years reporting

in order to make comparisons– No authority in the knowledge base– Common practices for inputting remains a challenge, e.g.

is a multi-part question from the same customer one or more questions?

– Access Services statistics

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Individual Library Considerations

• Consider doing a trial

• Think backwards– What questions about library use do you have?– What statistics would help you answer your questions?– What data would get you those statistics?– Carefully customize your data fields to gather the right

data

• Before making changes, think about how they will affect statistics and reports

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System-Wide Considerations

• In order to gather system-wide statistics– common data points – common terminology – common practice

• Not all data points would need to be in common

• Less customization for the individual libraries

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More InformationThe Vanderbilt Libraries Libstats• http://infostats.library.vanderbilt.edu

LibStats Homepage and more info• http://www.wendt.wisc.edu/projects/systems/libstats/index.do

Microsoft Excel Pivot Tables• http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/using/excel_pivot_tables

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