Annual Report Blog

Annual Reports - Final Steps

A quick overview of the final steps relating to your library's Annual Report:

• once I've reviewed your library's Annual Report and you've made any necessary changes - you will press the "submit" button on the electronic LibPAS form and print off however many copies as you need
• at the minimum you will need four original copies for signatures: one (or two) for your county, one for your municipality, and two for SCLS (one of these will be sent to the DPI)
• when I receive your two signed copies, I will do a quick review to make sure everything is okay before I send your Report to the DPI
• the DPI has asked to receive our system's Annual Reports in batches
• I just sent the DPI our first batch yesterday - I will be sending batches of Reports every couple of days for the next week or so
• I will notify the Library Director - or his / her Annual Report designee - when the print report has been sent to the DPI
• when I send your library's Report to the DPI, I will also lock the electronic LibPAS form - this means that only the DPI will have the ability to open the Report or to make changes

Let me know if you have any questions.

Peace.  - Denise Anton Wright, Public Library Administration Consultant

Enterprise Wireless Internet - Extracting Data for Use Reports

Although it's a strictly optional question for the 2012 Annual Report, determining the number of uses of your library's wireless Internet can be daunting if you use Enterprise Wireless (through SCLS).

Kerri Hilbelink from our SCLS staff created this overview of the Enterprise Wireless reports and why they look like they do:

• the Enterprise Wireless reports are emailed out on the 1st of each month and contain usage information from the previous calendar month
• because the wireless server is configured to only keep two months of statistics, it is NOT possible to run an entire year's worth of statistics.  If libraries wish to report their yearly statistics, they should add up their monthly reports to arrive at a yearly total.
• the Enterprise Wireless reports are pre-made "Client Sessions" reports for the Cisco equipment.  So, this report does not distinguish between devices being actively used to browse the Internet and devices that are automatically checking to see what wireless is available in their current location.

Ben Miller, Director of the Sauk City Public Library uses the Pivot Table function in Excel to turn his monthly Enterprise Wireless reports into use data that he can then share with his Library Board (or use on the Annual Report).  Ben created a handout with details of how he does this - it can now be found on the Annual Report page of our SCLS website.

Thanks to both Kerri and Ben for so generously sharing their knowledge.

Peace.  - Denise Anton Wright, Public Library Administration Consultant

Section XIII - Youth Services "Drop-in Activities" Clarification

We've had some questions about one of the new, optional questions on this year's Annual Report - Section XIII (Youth Services) - Question #2, "Drop-in Activities".

I checked with Walter from the DPI - the "drop-in activities" that you enter in Question #2 should not already be reported on your library's Annual Report - under either Programming (Section III) or Summer Reading (Section XIII).  The DPI defines "drop-in activities" as being unstructured and depending upon the participation of the attendee to create the experience - rather than a structured presentation offered by a librarian to a group at a set time.

The reason for this new question is to capture statistics for activities that previously "fell through the cracks" (my wording - not Walter's) on your library's annual report.

So bottom line - whatever your library reports in Section XIII - Question #2 (Drop-in Activities) should not be reported elsewhere on your Annual Report.

As always, let me know if you have questions.

Peace.  - Denise Anton Wright, Public Library Administration Consultant

Clarification - Process to Determine Subscriptions

For ILS / LINKcat Libraries 

Section II – Library Materials - Question #10 – Subscriptions

This question asks how many single serial subscriptions each library has. The DPI / DLT does not want to know how many years’ worth of serials your library maintains, just the number of unique serial titles that your library receives.

Use the LINKcat report, Total Serial Copies 2012.  Take the number from the Bibs column for your library. This is the total number of active print subscriptions currently received by your library.  It includes any “cloned” serial records for 2011, 2012, and 2013. 

In Koha, every subscription has a subscription record associated with it.  Most serials are not cloned.  However, a number of magazines are put on new bib records each year (cloned) because otherwise the item listings get far too long and it is difficult for patrons to find what they want.  Thus while a library may have only one active subscription to Time magazine, there are three subscription records in our Koha database for it (one for 2011, one for 2012 and one for 2013).  Even though you only have one real subscription, Time magazine will be counted three times in your library’s Total Serials Copies 2012 number because there are three cloned serial bib records for Time magazine in your holdings.

No matter what, you will need to subtract the 2013 clones for your library’s holdings. For titles that were cloned for 2012 and your library still has a 2011 subscription record, you will need to subtract that subscription record as well.  The lists of cloned serial records (below) for 2012 and 2013 are helpful because it will tell you how many times that title counts in your Total Serials Copies number.

The list of cloned serial records for 2013 is here:

http://www.scls.info/ils/serials/2013ClonesMemo.pdf

The list for 2012 is here:

http://www.scls.info/ils/serials/2012ClonesMemo.pdf

Many thanks to Joanna Messer for her help in clarifying this process.

Peace.  - Denise Anton Wright, Public Library Administration Consultant

Clarification - Program Attendance & Summer Reading

At this morning's Annual Report webinar, a question was raised concerning Section III, Question #8 (Programs & Program Attendance) and Section XIII, Question #1 (Summer Library Programming).  Here's a clarification:

For Section III, Question #8, you will include all planned events - held on-site or off-site - sponsored or co-sponsored by your library.

• Question #8a concerns the number of programs / events for children and attendance at those events (include adults who attend the events for children). 
• Question #8b concerns the number of programs /events for young adults and attendance at those events.  If your library does not target events to young adults, report "0" here.
• Question #8c concerns the number of programs / events and attendance at those events not specifically targeted for children or young adults.  Events for adults, seniors, cross-generational audiences, and events not specific to any one target group are counted here.  So if your library offers movie events that are geared to all ages, you would report those here.

For Section XIII, Question #1 (Summer Library Programming) you will focus on just the summer library program at your library (these statistics should be included in the numbers you provided for Section III, Question #8). 

• Question #1a concerns the total number of children & young adults who registered for or participated in any of the summer library programs offered at your library.
• Question #1b concerns the number of children under the age of five who participated in your library's summer library program (DPI requests that you estimate if a specific number is unavailable).
• Question #1c concerns the number of young adults (ages 12 to 18) who participated in your library's summer library program (DPI requests that you estimate if a specific number is unavailable).
• Question #1d concerns the total attendance (children through adults) at children's summer library events.

Please let me know if you have any questions. 

Peace.  - Denise Anton Wright, Public Library Administration Consultant

Clarification from DPI - Trust Funds & Other Funds

At this morning's Annual Report webinar, questions were asked concerning Section VIII (Other Funds Held by the Library Board) and Section IX (Trust Funds).

Here's clarification from the DPI:

• All funds controlled by the Library Board must be reported in either Section VIII or IX.  If the funds are not controlled by the Library Board, they are not included in the Annual Report.
• To qualify as a Trust Fund (Section IX), funds need to be under the control of the Library Board and have a library trustee (who has been bonded) appointed as financial secretary.
• Funds invested with the SCLS Foundation should be reported in Section VIII (Other Funds Held by the Library Board).
• Funds reported in Section VIII (Other Funds Held by the Library Board) DO NOT require details of fund activity be attached to the signed copy of the Annual Report.  Funds reported in Section IX (Trust Funds) DO require details of fund activity be attached to the signed copy of the Annual Report.

Peace.  - Denise Anton Wright, Public Library Administration Consultant

Updates to ILS / LINKcat Instructions & Reports

Several updates / corrections to the ILS / LINKcat Annual Report Instructions and ILS / LINKcat Reports:

• Section III, Question #2 (Interlibrary Loans) - thanks to Brian @ VER we realized the directions for Question #2a (Items Loaned) and Question #2b (Items Received) were inconsistent with the wording on the reports.  Using the Total Loaned and Borrowed 2012 spreadsheet, you will need to use the "Subtotal" line reported toward the bottom of the spreadsheet (below "SCLS" and above "LINKcat") for your library's numbers of Loaned and Borrowed - not the "Total Loaned" and "Total Borrowed" as originally written.  Heidi Oliversen has corrected this wording on the ILS / LINKcat Instructions.
• Hyperlinks to the necessary ILS / LINKcat Reports are now available within the ILS / LINKcat Instructions.
• As Heidi Oliversen makes updates / corrections to anything contained in the ILS / LINKcat Instructions, she will indicate it using an "updated" date in red.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Peace.  - Denise Anton Wright, Public Library Administration Consultant

ILS / LINKcat Instructions and Reports Available

The SCLS ILS / LINKcat Annual Report Instructions and LINKcat Reports are now available.  They can be accessed either from the ILS Support Reports page or the SCLS Annual Report page.  Many thanks to the SCLS staff - Vicki, Heidi O., Greg, Cindy, Joanna, and Amy - for all their hard work on these Instructions and Reports.

Peace,

Denise Anton Wright, Public Library Administration Consultant

Updates to SCLS Annual Report Information

We've made a few updates / changes to the SCLS 2012 Annual Report Instructions on our SCLS website.  Of special note are the changes made to the instructions for Section XII, Question #1 ("What type of Internet connection do you have?").  Sections of the Instructions that have been updated are dated in red.

We anticipate having the LINKcat Instructions for the Annual Report and the related LINKcat Reports posted in the next day or so.  We apologize for the delay.

And don't forget the Annual Report webinar this Friday, February 1st from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m.  Register for the webinar here - the webinar will be archived.  New directors who have not completed an annual report are especially encouraged to attend.

Peace. 

- Denise Anton Wright, Public Library Administration Consultant

SCLS Annual Report Instructions Now Available

Each SCLS member library should have received an e-mail message this week from the DPI / DLT, letting you know that the electronic version of your library's 2012 Annual Report is ready to access.  If you did not receive an e-mail or have any difficulties accessing your library's Annual Report, please let me know.

The SCLS 2012 Annual Report Instructions are now available on the SCLS website.  The ILS / LINKcat Memo and LINKcat reports will be available shortly.

As we suggest in our SCLS Instructions, it's a great idea to log into your library's electronic annual report form even if you aren't ready to begin entering data.  At this point we just want to be certain that there aren't any problems accessing your report.

 

Peace.

Denise Anton Wright

SCLS Public Library Administration Consultant

2012 Public Library Annual Report

Where does the year go?  It's time to get ready for your library's 2012 Public Library Annual Report.

The SCLS Annual Report webinar will take place on Friday, February 1, 2013 from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. (the webinar will be archived).  This webinar is especially helpful for new directors.

The DPI / DLT just released a facsimile version of the 2012 Annual Report on their website.  They have also posted their instructions for completing the the Report.

SCLS is in the process of compiling the information that the DPI / DLT will use to pre-populate several of the fields on your library's 2012 Annual Report.  The DPI / DLT intends to have the electronic annual reports available on or shortly after January 15th.

The SCLS memo and LINKcat memo / reports are being finalized and we will let you know as soon as they are available.  We are also updating our Annual Report web page and will continue to do so as new information becomes available.

In order to adhere to the March 1st submission deadline that the State of Wisconsin requires, we ask that you have your library's data entered into the electronic Annual Report no later than February 15th so SCLS can review it before it is submitted to the state.

Peace.

- Denise Anton Wright, Public Library Administration Consultant