Libstats: Overview & Demo
Hilary Rudsenske and Rachel Vacek,
Walker Management Library,
Vanderbilt University
August 15, 2007

Outline
• Overview
• Demo
• The Walker Management Library Experience
• Individual Library Considerations
• System-wide Library Considerations
• Reports
Libstats Demo & Overview 2

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
Libstats Demo & Overview 3

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 & Overview 4

Libstats Demo

Walker Library Experience
Goals
– Collect more detailed information about library
use
– Gather data about how staff spend their time
– Streamline current statistic reporting process
Libstats Demo & Overview 6

Walker Library Experience
Staff 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
Libstats Demo & Overview 7

Walker Library Experience
Initial Test
– Information Services data only
• No Access Services data
– Two weeks
• March 1-15, 2007
Libstats Demo & Overview 8

Walker Library Experience
Trial 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
Libstats Demo & Overview 9

Libstats Demo & Overview 10

Walker Library Experience
Trial 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
Libstats Demo & Overview 11

Walker Library Experience
Steps 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
Libstats Demo & Overview 12

Walker Library Experience
Implementation 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
Libstats Demo & Overview 13

Walker Library Experience
Implementation 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 Experience
Challenges
– 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
Libstats Demo & Overview 15

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
Libstats Demo & Overview 16

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
Libstats Demo & Overview 17

More Information
The 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
_collins.mspx
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