The information below was shared in April 2021 in an email from the Division for Libraries and Technology (DLT), and I forwarded it to the annual report email list at that time. Because it outlines some specific changes to the 2021 annual report I wanted to share it again here in the Annual Report Blog.
A series of updates were approved for the 2021 Federal Public Libraries Survey which all Wisconsin public libraries participate in through your responses on the Wisconsin Public Library Annual Report. This 2021 Public Libraries Survey (PLS) New/Revised Data Elements document provides a basic overview of updates to the Federal Public Libraries Survey that we aim to incorporate into the 2021 annual report if they are not already part of the Wisconsin Public Library Annual Report. DLT said it understood that he timing of the release of these data elements in April did not provide time to start collecting from the beginning of the year, but it did give you an opportunity to begin thinking about revising the ways you track some information going forward. While these updates will be made available on the 2021 annual report to allow you to provide more detailed information about your library’s services, it is understood that many libraries do not track some of these elements to this level of detail yet. DLT will provide as much guidance and as many tools and resources as it can to help libraries respond to the data elements in the annual report.
Programming
Newly adopted proposals will breakout the targeted age ranges for programming into children ages 0-5, children ages 6-11, young adults ages 12-18, adults ages 19+, and general interest programs. These ages ranges are the targeted age group of the program and not the ages of attendees of the programs. The other adopted programming proposal will request information regarding the location of the program as either “on-site” or “off-site.” Another aspect of the second proposal that DLT began allowing for last year was the in-person, live virtual, and pre-recorded distinction in programming that equates to the synchronous and asynchronous programming component of the data element.
DLT will be updating its definitions, guidance, and supporting materials (for example, the Programming and Activity Count Tracker) to reflect these changes. DLT will inform library staff as these updates are made to help you better prepare for these changes and their impact on the programming section of the annual report.
All Other Changes
There are some minor technical changes, some added flexibility to collect the type of measure using either “survey week” or “actual” counts for the uses of public internet computers and wireless sessions, and an addition of a physical circulating items and “other” items on the federal survey. How the “other circulating items” question is added to the annual report will be clarified later in the year. Currently, we ask you to report the number and describe “other” items you own outside of print, audio, video, and e-materials. Many of the items described do not appear (based on the description) to circulate outside of the library, so we’ll be conducting research and talking to library staff and administrators before determining how best to incorporate the “other circulating items” element into the Wisconsin Public Library Annual Report.
Last Points
- You can review upcoming changes to the Federal components of the Wisconsin Public Library Annual Report in the 2021 Public Libraries Survey (PLS) New/Revised Data Elements doc.
- There will likely be other changes made to the annual report outside of the changes to accommodate the Federal survey in order to make the report more clear.
- More information on these changes, supporting materials, and more will be available later and throughout the year. Stay tuned.
- Share this message with staff who work on or collect data for the annual report—the linked document is available for anyone to view.
- Library system directors also have reviewed this document.
- Since I said “survey week” above, it might be a good idea to think about running a survey week for the various data elements that allow it (visits, reference, wireless sessions, public internet computer use) sometime in October if you don’t already track it all year. Set yourself an annual calendar reminder and run it again in the spring, too, to get a reliable annual count estimate.
- Send any questions you may have to [email protected]. Again, information will be made available to all of you as we have it.