I do apologize for the delay in summarising all the really good advice as to which library statistics might be most useful, but 'the dreaded' has been in play.
Here is a precis from differing responses, I hope that it helps your thinking as it has mine -
From a health library perspective -
For fun -
Top 10 titles borrowed
From a law library perspective -
- Print vs Electronic
- Renewal/auto-renewal
- Footfall stats in busy periods
- Search cf Basic search cf Browse on discovery system
From a museum perspective -
- Annual visitor figures
- As it relates to justifying staffing
- New online catalogue visits to measure relative interest compared to outreach activities
- Overseas visitors to digitized collections to justify cost/effort
From a 'head tightly fixed on shoulders' librarian perspective -
- Eresources stats to justify expenditure
- Holds verses demand on popular titles to guide acquisition
- Number of books catalogued per day, face-to-face enquiries versus remote, ILL numbers ... all aimed at demonstrating value added by library to user experience and therefore whole institution
- Space usage surveys, footfall, group study space requests ... all to maybe bid for more space and/or to inform marketing
- Pre-emptive provision of statistics provides predictive capacity of emerging trends before they creep up on you unawares
From a music librarian perspective -
- Footfall
- Purpose of visit
- Quiet study visitors
- Computer usage
- Online database usage
- Cost per use of book
- Borrowing within the library or taken out on loan for weeding purposes
- Book usage compared to student grade outcome, especially those with specific learning difficulties
The last three in this last list are things we might all like to know but are really difficult to establish.
Thank you again for all your contributions.
Sincerely,
Keith
Keith Lang, BSc(Eng), PGCE, QTS, DipHE, MScEcon, ACLIP
Librarian
01923 456190
The Library, London School of Theology
Green Lane, Northwood, HA6 2UW, UK
Dear colleagues,
After five years of one major LMS which gave me no facility for statistics (it was chosen before my time but I had to suffer it), I now have Koha and can generate potentially whatever I like.
I am in the luxurious position that no-one doubts the value of the library, and I do not have to justify staffing as I am a solo librarian in charge of a university library. So, given that there is no pressure to produce any statistics, I can choose what will
best promote the interests of the collection and serve best the academics and students directly.
So here's the question for discussion : If you only had to generate what was helpful as described above, and in no way had to justify anything (except perhaps spending on stock) what would you go for/recommend and why?
Your answers will probably feed directly in to our library committee meeting next Wednesday. I do have some of my own ideas anyway but I am very interested what other professionals have to offer as I have no other library brains here to tap.
Sincerely with anticipated appreciation,
Keith Lang, BSc(Eng), PGCE, QTS, DipHE, MScEcon, ACLIP
Librarian
01923 456190
The Library, London School of Theology
Green Lane, Northwood, HA6 2UW, UK
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