August 8, 2014

Question

Amy Heebner (NY)

Hello everyone!  I am the new state data coordinator for New York.

We have already started counting wireless sessions but we have had questions about how to count the sessions.  Some libraries may not be able to get statistics from their wireless provider.  Some have asked if we can provide software to assist with statistics.  Other libraries have said they count the number of people they see using their cell phone or laptop in the library. 

I looked at Michigan's "Best Practices for Wireless Statistics," which was very helpful.  I was wondering if anyone had any additional suggestions, and/or if your libraries have had difficulties getting statistics from their providers.

SDC Comments

Kathy Sheppard (SC)

Welcome, Amy!

We in South Carolina announced the new required count of wireless to our public libraries, and even emphasizing the optional first year, we immediately got a lot of panicked responses about how to get the count, the difficulty of and the cost of getting the count.

We haven't sent out much official guidance because aren't yet sure what advice to give,  and we don't want to commit to anything we cannot guarantee, like funding for the software, or technology assistance that we may not be able to provide.

About half our libraries are already counting and comfortable with it.  They see the necessity and they are able to take steps to make this a regular routine.   The other half are either looking into it  or worried about it.  The State Library  won't have a coordinated response for  a little while, and we don't expect a 100% count this year or possibly even next.  We too have libraries that only count the people they "see" using the wireless.  (How exactly are they doing that ?!)  So it's a work in progress.

Michigan's list of software products was a great help also to us. 

This will make for good discussion at the conference in December.