Walker Management Library's Hilary Rudsenske and Rachel Vacek created this presentation to demo and provide an overview of Libstats to other Vanderbilt University library staff. Libstats is a simple, free, open-source, web-based system for tracking library statistics and questions. The Walker Library has already implemented use of Libstats shares their experience in this presentation. They explore the administrative side and its customizable demographic settings as well as how to run reports. Learn how the Walker Library is using it to meet their needs for quick reference statistics gathering. This online tool has a lot of potential and can work for multiple libraries and service points - you might find that you want to implement this tool in your library, too!

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

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

3. 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

4. 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

5. Libstats Demo

6. 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

7. 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

8. Walker Library Experience
Initial Test
– Information Services data only
• No Access Services data
– Two weeks
• March 1-15, 2007
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9. 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

10. Libstats Demo & Overview 10

11. 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
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12. 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
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13. 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
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14. 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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15. 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

16. 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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17. 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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18. 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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