FY 2014 Data Element Proposals main page:  http://plsc.pbworks.com/w/page/67874172/FY%202014%20Data%20Element%20Proposals 

 

Proposals are due by COB Friday, October 4.  All comments on proposals should be posted by COB Friday, October 18.

You must have an account to post data elements and/or comments.

 

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Proposed New Data Elements:

 

1.  Wireless Sessions – Annually

Definition: Report the number of wireless sessions provided by the library wireless service annually.

 

Rationale: Wireless internet service is a key and increasing service of libraries.  It makes sense to have a national statistic regarding the level of service to monitor trends and to inform local, state and national broadband policies and initiatives.  The information would come from wireless service providers and/or software.

 

Colleen Hamer (MT) 

 

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Proposed Changed Data Elements:

  

1. 552 Provided To (Change – highlighted in orange)

These are library materials, or copies of the materials, provided by one autonomous library to another upon request. The libraries involved in interlibrary loans are not under the same library administration. “Library administration” means Administrative Entity (not anything broader). Do not include items loaned between outlets within the same library administrative entity. Exception: Where libraries are user sharing libraries sharing the same ILS, where items may be obtained via a place hold function within the ILS and the patron is from one of the sharing libraries, these may not be counted as inter-library loan. These data are reported as annual figures.

 

2. 553 Received From (Change – highlighted in orange)

These are library materials, or copies of the materials, received by one autonomous library from another upon request. The libraries involved in interlibrary loans are not under the same library administration. “Library administration” means Administrative Entity (not anything broader). Do not include items loaned between outlets within the same library administrative entity. . Exception: Where libraries are user sharing libraries sharing the same ILS, where items may be obtained via a place hold function within the ILS and the patron is from one of the sharing libraries, these may not be counted as inter-library loan. These data are reported as annual figures.

 

Rationale: Sharing arrangements amongst groups of libraries make it possible to increase collections and decrease overhead. A “share” within such groups is not the same as an inter-library loan in the sense of the cost or complexity of the transaction. With the current definition, narrowly defining the library entity, it requires these transactions to be counted as inter-library loan. These transactions are dissimilar to traditional inter-library loan transactions and the nature of a shared ILS makes it difficult to track the transactions as inter-library loan.

 

Colleen Hamer (MT)

 

3. Replace: 502 Reference Transactions

 

A reference transaction is an information contact which involves the knowledge, use, recommendations,

interpretation, or instruction in the use of one or more information sources by a member of the library staff. It includes information and referral services. Information sources include printed and non-printed materials,machine-readable databases, catalogs and other holdings records, and, through communication or referral, other libraries and institutions and people inside and outside the library. The request may come in person, by phone, by fax, or by mail, electronic mail, or through live or networked electronic reference service from an adult, a young adult, or a child.Do not count directional transactions or questions of rules or policies. Examples of directional transactions are “Where are the children’s books?" and “I’m looking for a book with the call  number 811.2G.” An example of a question of rules or policies is “Are you open until 9:00 tonight?"

 

Note: If an annual count of reference transactions is unavailable, determine an annual estimate by counting reference transactions during a typical week in October and multiply the count by 52. A "typical week" is a time that is neither unusually busy nor unusually slow. Avoid holiday times, vacation periods for key staff, or days when unusual events are taking place in the community or in the library.Choose a week in which the library is open its regular hours.Include seven consecutive calendar days, from Sunday

through Saturday (or whenever the library is usually open).

 

With:

 

502 Public Service Transactions

 

A public service transaction is an information contact which involves a query from a patron or member of the public to a member of the library staff. It includes information and referral services, as well as directional questions, library policy questions, or requests for technical assistance. Do not include circulation or payment transactions. The request may come in person, by phone, by fax, or by mail, electronic mail, or through live or networked electronic reference service from an adult, a young adult, or a child.

 

A transaction is an exchange of information on a related topic that may include multiple questions; do not count each question as a separate transaction. A verbal conversation is one transaction; an e-mail request and response is a single transaction (additional requests and responses are additional transactions); a string of text messages or live chat that constitute a session are a single transaction.

 

Note: If an annual count of public service transactions is unavailable, determine an annual estimate by counting reference transactions during a typical week in October and multiply the count by 52. A "typical week" is a time that is neither unusually busy nor unusually slow. Avoid holiday times, vacation periods for key staff, or days when unusual events are taking place in the community or in the library.  Choose a week in which the library is open its regular hours.

 

Rationale: I’m offering this proposal because I’d like us to discuss this sacred cow.

 

Phoenix Public Library, the largest in AZ serving 1.5 million residents, told me they were abandoning the collection of reference questions this year in favor of public service transactions. Neither Pima nor Maricopa counties (serving a combined 1.5 million as well) have collected reference transactions for a number of years.

 

Base d on observation, the libraries that do respond are all over the place on this one. The libraries complain that the number they need to collect should help them determine staffing – and taking out directional and policy questions doesn’t leave them with a number they can use.

 

American Libraries Star Index purposefully does not include Reference Questions. The online FAQ says: “Reference transactions do not correlate sufficiently with the four LJ Index output measures to justify inclusion. The decision to exclude reference transactions does not reflect on the value of reference services at all. It is due to questions about the quality of reference statistics, which appear to have both validity and reliability problems. It is not clear that reference data count only the intellectual product of trained librarians, or a wider range of services, such as directional questions. Also, the data are not necessarily counted in the same way by all libraries.

 

“While all public library statistics can be questioned on those grounds, concerns are greater for reference because it is very weakly related-consistently so over time-to the four LJ Index indicators.” http://lj.libraryjournal.com/stars-faq/#FAQ13

 

I’m not sure that Public Service Transactions will be any more successful, but would like to discuss this change. I could be persuaded that circulation and fines are quite fine to include.

 

Laura Stone (AZ) 

 

4. 550 Total Circulation

          The total annual circulation of all library materials of all types including renewals.

5. 551 Circulation of Children's Materials

          The total annual circulation of all chidren's materials in all formats to all users, including renewals.

 

Change to:

 

550 Total Circulation

The total annual circulation of all library materials of all types including excluding renewals.

551 Circulation of Children's Materials

The total annual circulation of all chidren's materials in all formats to all users, including  excluding renewals.

 

RATIONALE: If it is open season on sacred cows, then I'm going to recommend this one--again.  I will speculate that an argument against Laura's recommendation will be the same one used against mine in the past--that the definition change would prevent comparing numbers before and after the change.  (And yes, that was not the only argument but inertia had a lot to do with it.)

 

It is reasonable to assume that renewals were originally included because (a) it was the era of paper circulation cards and libraries would have balked at having to keep their renewal and first time circulation cards separated to get accurate counts of first-time lent materials and (b) finding and stamping cards involved staff time.  With ILS systems, neither reason applies.  

 

If you ask a lay person what it means when informed that the library circulated 100 items annually, the response will be 100 different lent items, not, "Well, it depends, a certain percentage will be one-time uses and a certain percentage will be renewed, sometimes once, sometimes twice and some up to the limit permitted and it's impossible to tell how many items were lent at least once." Because our numbers are now widely available because of the Internet (tekkies insisted on saying World Wide Web because the Internet was the means and WWW was content but the vernacular won out), we need to go with the vernacular and not the cloistered.  

 

Bruce (Tilting at Windmills) Pomerantz  

Minnesota   

  

6. Change "Licensed Databases" to Databases (456, 457, 458)

  

The wording for this category assumes that all databases are licensed not purchased or developed by the library. I would propose that the SDCs (and State Librarians) authorize the LSWG to revise the wording to reflect including any purchased or any locally produced databases.

 

Rationale: The recent question from the SDC in Nevada had me re-read the definition. I think that the language should be revised to be more inclusive.

 

Michael Golrick

Louisiana

 

7. 450 Print Books (Change from 450 Print Materials)

 

Books are non-serial printed publications (including music and maps) that are bound in hard or soft covers, or in loose-leaf format. Include non-serial government documents. Report the number of physical units, including duplicates. For smaller libraries, if volume data are not available, count the number of titles. Books packaged together as a unit (e.g., a 2-volume set) and checked out as a unit are counted as one physical unit.

 

Rationale: In 2011 “Serial back files in print” was removed from the data element 450 Print Materials; however, the first part of the definition was not updated to reflect this change. Updating the name of the data element to “Print Books” and deleting “Report a single figure that includes both of the following: 1. Books in print” would appropriately update the data element to reflect the changes made in 2011.

 

Nicolle Steffen (CO)

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Proposed Deleted Data Elements:

 

  

1.  710 Metropolitan Status Code (click on link to see definition)

 

IMLS would obtain the Metropolitan Status Code during the geocoding process of the data in the compilation phase of the survey cycle.  The C_MSA data will be placed on the file for release.  This item would not appear in WebPLUS. 

 

 2. 353 Print Materials Expenditures, 354 Electronic materials expenditures, 355 Other materials expenditures.

 

I'm submitting as a brain-storming suggestion and would like to hear if others have had a similar thought.  I initially thought it would be important to track the changes between print material expenditures and electronic materials expenditures as the public’s  media preference transitions from print to electronic.  Now I’m wondering if the distinction is important, then it’s important only at the local level for the librarians to explain to policy makers and funders.  Should we just have one number: All Materials Expenditures (357)?  

 

Bruce Pomerantz

Minnesota

 

3. 103 Total Unduplicated Population of Legal Service Areas

 

I do not understand the purpose of this question nor how I am to calculate it as a state with overlapping jurisdictions because county revenue is provided to independent libraries within a county. These libraries can jusftifiably each claim the entire county population because the county funding prevents them from denying service to a non-city resident. 

 

Because unserved areas are not included in this item and IF the intent is to detemine the number served by public libraries and the number not served, wouldn't it be clearer to ask "Population total and percent not served by public libraries."