Jennings directors station
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This document summarizes the use of the Director's Station software by the Gold Coast City Libraries in Australia. It provides background on the library's implementation of the software and migration to newer versions. It then describes how different groups within the library utilize data and reports from Director's Station for various purposes like collection development, program evaluation, and benchmarking. The document also discusses issues with data validity when using the software and highlights both benefits and frustrations of the system.
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Jennings directors station
- 1. Director’s Station: Holy Grail or Pandora’s Box? Leona Jennings 2010 COSA User Conference, Gold Coast 26-27 October 2010
- 2. The City • 510,671 residents • 70 km beaches • 260 km navigable waterways • 287 days sunshine • 2,245 parks Image courtesy of Gold Coast info http://www.goldcoastinfo.net
- 3. Gold Coast City Libraries promoting learning, inspiring imaginations
- 5. Director’s Station - some background • GCCC implemented: – Unicorn in 2003 – Director’s Station in 2005 • Migrated to SaaS in 2009, in the process upgrading from – Unicorn 2003.1.4.5 to Symphony 3.2.1 – Director’s Station 3.8 to Director’s Station 4.8.1 • In 2010 we upgraded to: – Symphony 3.3.1 – Director’s Station 4.9
- 6. Statistics are somewhat like old medical journals, or like revolvers in newly opened mining districts. Most men rarely use them, and find it troublesome to preserve them so as to have them easy of access; but when they do want them, they want them badly. John Shaw Billings "Billings, John Shaw" The Oxford Dictionary of Scientific Quotations. Ed. W. F. Bynum and Roy Porter. Oxford University Press, 2006. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Gold Coast City Council Library Service. 22 October 2010 <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t218.e134>
- 7. Who uses it? • Management – for marketing, reporting, planning, benchmarking, evaluation • Collection services staff – for collection development, budgeting, database cleanup • Branch librarians – for business planning, morale, QA, rostering, targeted services • Library staff – for collection management, program evaluation Image courtesy of the Gold Coast City Council Local Studies Library. My toy!
- 8. Collection management Canterbury Christchurch University Uploaded by Travelin’ Librarian www.flickr.com
- 11. Loans
- 16. There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics. Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield "Disraeli, Benjamin, Lord Beaconsfield" The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Ed. Susan Ratcliffe. Oxford University Press, 2006. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Gold Coast City Council Library Service. 22 October 2010 <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t91.e755>
- 17. Data validity – tips for the unwary • Symphony vs Director’s Station – Single point of truth – Real time vs batch update – Composite measures – Terminology • “Current” vs “Transactional” data – Only checkins, historical checkouts and renewals, and OPAC searches are created from the Symphony activity logs – The other cubes are built directly from the data tables within Symphony.
- 18. …When she was good / She was very, very good, / But when she was bad she was horrid Henry Wadsworth Longfellow "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow" Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. by Elizabeth Knowles. Oxford University Press Inc. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Gold Coast City Council Library Service. 22 October 2010 <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t115.e2066>
- 20. The good • Flexibility • The ability to drill further and further down, to have multiple dimensions, to look at the same data from various angles • Instant gratification • You can’t hurt anything and you’re not at risk of bringing your production LMS to it’s knees • The underlying lists you can produce from most cubes • It’s easy to use and generally fast. • Easy to export data to Excel etc.
- 21. The frustrations • Reports and dimensions can be slow to open the first time, and may even time out until cached on the server. • There are never enough dimensions – there is always something else you need. • The lists often exclude that one extra field you need. • Need to know your data structure to know how to use it effectively. • When there is an issue it takes a while to fix.
- 22. In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy Ivan Illich "Illich, Ivan" The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations. Ed. Elizabeth Knowles. Oxford University Press, 2008. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Gold Coast City Council Library Service. 22 October 2010 <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t93.e897>
Editor's Notes
- Welcome to our City. And thank you to Amanda Carlson – who I’m sure will recognise this slide!
- Distributed network 171 staff 263,462 library members 932,615 items 7.2 million loans per annum (65% thru self serve) More than 8k visits per day 12 branch libraries 2 mobile libraries Local Studies Library Corporate Library Collection Services Unit
- Managing upgrades when you have “bolt-on” systems or components always adds that extra layer of complexity. It wasn’t our intention when we first migrated to SaaS to upgrade Director’s Station – surely jumping three versions of the LMS was enough of a change management challenge! But then Director’s Station 3.8 was not compatible with Symphony 3.2.1. Director’s Station 3.10 was compatible, but GCCC would not be able to retain the historical analysis of data which was available with Director’s Station 3.8 – so we needed to go to Director’s Station 4.8.1. Those who have visited our website will notice that our catalogue is still Rev C – that’s because Rev D is not compatible with Hyperion. And so on.
- The data from Director’s Station is the basis of the majority of our corporate activity reporting, performance reporting, benefits realisation reporting, annual statistical returns, budget and business planning. It is also used intensively for day to day operational activities such as collection management and data integrity checking.
- Weeding reports, stock rotation reports, collection analysis including stock turnover, age and under utilisation. It is easy to identify items that have been incorrectly coded or are located where they shouldn’t be.
- The branch libraries use Director’s Station to produce a range of collection management reports – including weeding reports. Using the “All Catalog measures” report as a base they have created weeding reports for specific collection areas. Library staff select the candidate items they wish to investigate further – for example items that have not been checked out within 12 months that were added to the collection more than 3 years ago.
- The resulting list provides more detail, including total number of checkouts and item identification information. The list can be manipulated within Director’s Station – columns suppressed, or resorted – and printed, or it can be exported to MS Excel or saved as a .CSV file. We generally recommend that the reports be exported to Excel if manipulation is required.
- This is a composite report constructed from four separate reports, exported to Excel and concatenated.
- Directors Station can also be used to produce title lists – this one for example is the top 500 Adult Fiction titles borrowed during the 2010-11 FY. It was created using the All Checkout Measures (Historical) report.
- Southport Library, checkins for 2009-10 by hour of day and day of week.
- Southport Library, loans for 2009-10 by hour of day and day of week.