ACRL Webinar Notes

Owned by Nikki DeMoville (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Dec 15, 2017
5 min read

General Information

Survey Questions - specific information

Expenses (Q. 01-31)

  • Staffing Types, FTEs, and Expenses (Q. 01-09)
    • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  NO
      • Use campus accounting and HR systems as normal
  • Expenses (Exclude Staff) (Q. 20-31)
    • Materials / Services Expenses (Q. 20-23)
      • One-time purchases of books, serial back-files, and other materials (Q. 20)
        • E-books (if available) (Q. 20a)
      • Ongoing commitments to subscriptions (Q. 21)
        • Include subscriptions, standing orders, journal packages, and databases
        • Include annual electronic platform or access fees
        • Specific expense break-outs:
          • E-books (if available) (Q. 21a)
          • E-journals (if available) (Q. 21b)
      • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  Next year:  Basic level for 20 & 21; 20a, 21a, and 21b also possible if use specific POL types
      • Don't forget to manually add in CO spend on behalf of campuses (ECC)
    • All other materials/service cost (Q. 22)
      • ILL costs for materials
      • Pay-per-view article transactions (e.g. Get It Now)
      • Short-term loans as part of a Patron-Driven Acquisition (PDA) or Demand-Driven Acquisition (DDA) program
      • RefWorks, EndNote and similar services
      • Do not include postage or courier fees or the costs of bibliographic utilities associated with ILL (count as other expenses in line 25)
      • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  NO
    • Operations and Maintenance Expenses (Q. 24-27)
      • Preservation services (Q. 24)
        • Include binding, rebinding, and other conservation services
        • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  NO
      • All other operations and maintenance services (Q. 25)
        • All other expenses (exclude only expenses for new buildings and building renovations)
        • Don't forget to add in the CO spend on behalf of campuses (services other than information resources)
        • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  NO

Collections (Q. 40-44)

  • Library Collections
    • Physical Books (include government documents)
      • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  YES; can be run in the IZ
    • Digital/Electronic Books (include government documents)
      • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  YES; has to be run in the NZ
    • Books [volume count]
      • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  YES; can be run in the IZ
      • Warning:  Alma will only count number of item records.  Journal volumes or other incompletely barcoded collections may be undercounted.
      • This count includes books and bound serials.
    • Digital/Electronic Databases (Q. 41)
      • Licensed databases and collections
      • Count using E-Collections activated in Alma (both IZ and NZ-shared) and your A-Z list as appropriate
      • Count all of the following:  locally licensed databases, SDLC opt-ins, ECC databases
      • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  Partially
      • Recommended that anything with a search interface (like ScienceDirect or Academic Search Complete) be counted as a database.
    • Physical Media
      • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  YES; can be run in the IZ
    • Digital/Electronic Media
      • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  YES; best if run in the NZ
    • Physical Serials
      • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  YES; can be run in the IZ
    • Digital/Electronic Serials
      • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  YES; has to be run in the NZ
    • Note: We recommend that everyone use the material type as defined in Analytics under Bibliographic Details> Material Type. There are fewer, less specific designations, so it is easier to combine counts for the different questions. Also, we all contribute to the bibliographic records in the Network Zone, so there is a greater potential to correct records and/or build consistency.

Institutional Repositories (Q. 50-51)

  • Items contributed, Item usage
  • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  NO

Library Circulation / Usage (Q. 60-63)

  • Library Circulation / Usage
    • Total Physical Circulation (Q. 60 Column A)
      • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  YES, starting next year
    • Total Digital/Electronic Circulation or Usage (Q. 60 Column B)
      • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  Partially
      • Campuses must compute final numbers on their own due to non-COUNTER, MR, other issues
      • (BR1 + MR1 + BR2 + MR2 (only where BR1/MR1 not available)) + Non-COUNTER e-book usage + Non-COUNTER e-media usage*
    • E-book usage (Q. 61-62) 
      • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  Partially
      • Campuses must compute final numbers on their own due to insufficient COUNTER data loaded in Alma
      • 61B = BR1 + MR1; 62B = BR2 + MR2 (if available)
    • E-serials usage (Q. 63)
      • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  Partially
      • Campuses must compute final numbers on their own due to non-COUNTER, other issues
      • JR1 + Non-COUNTER e-serials usage
    • *Recommended hierarchy for e-book usage computation:
      • BR1 (book title requests)
      • plus MR1 (multimedia content unit requests - the standard multimedia COUNTER report)
      • plus BR2 (book chapter requests) for book platforms where you did not report BR1 data
      • plus MR2 (multimedia content requests - an optional COUNTER report) for media platforms where you did not report MR1 data
      • plus non-COUNTER data for book or media platforms where you did not report any of the above COUNTER data

Information Services to Individuals (Q. 64-67)

  • Transactions, Consultations, Virtual Reference Services
  • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  NO

Locations (Q. 68)

  • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  NO
  • Number of branch and independent libraries–not the same as Alma locations/libraries

Information Services to Groups (Q. 70-71)

  • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  NO

Hours (Q. 72)

  • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  NO

Gate Counts (Q. 73-74)

  • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  NO

Interlibrary Loan Services (Q. 80-82)

  • Total interlibrary loans and documents provided to other libraries (Q. 81)
    • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  NO for 2016-17.  Partially (CSU+) for 2017-18 and beyond.
    • ILL-01 Returnable:  starting next year, include CSU+ lending transactions here, as well as all other physical lending.  Analytics report will be available for CSU+.
    • ILL-02 Non-returnable:  count as usual
  • Total interlibrary loans and documents received (Q. 82)
    • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  NO for 2016-17.  Partially (CSU+) for 2017-18 and beyond.
    • ILL-03 Returnable:  starting next year, include CSU+ borrowing transactions here, as well as all other physical borrowing.  Analytics report will be available for CSU+.
    • ILL-04 Non-returnable:  count as usual
      • Note for institutions using short-term loans (STL) as part of a Patron-Driven Acquisition (PDA) or Demand-Driven Acquisition (DDA) program:  include STL in your count of non-returnable borrowing transactions.

Student Enrollment

  • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  NO
  • Consult your campus office of Institutional Research and the Common Data Set
  • FTE is based on credit hours in a 12-month period (for semester schools, 30 = 1 undergrad; 24 = 1 grad)


Library Trends and Alma Migration:  Potential Imact on Reported Data

Q:  Media counts appear to be increasing and Physical Serials counts decreasing over last year.  Is this expected?  Where else might we expect to see significant changes?

A:  Increases and decreases in particular formats are likely because of the following widespread trends:

  • Libraries are increasingly expected to support media needs--some physical (e.g. DVD movies) but mostly streaming (e.g. Kanopy, Docuseek2, Films on Demand, Naxos Music Library)
    • Therefore I would expect to see media counts increase year over year
  • Libraries are increasingly expected to reduce their physical collections to make room for other services, and a major way to accomplish this is by withdrawing print journal runs
    • Therefore I would expect to see physical journal counts decrease year over year
    • I would also expect to see a general decline in the number of physical volumes reported
  • Libraries are increasingly (though not entirely) preferring electronic formats over print
    • Therefore I would expect to see a decrease in physical titles and an increase in electronic titles year over year

Q:  What changes in reported data might result from the Alma migration?

A:  It is difficult to estimate the impact of the Alma migration on collection counts, but the following factors may be involved:

  • Libraries may have re-calibrated their collection counts for items like physical journal volumes due to the barcoding projects many campuses undertook as part of the migration process
  • Libraries may have conducted physical inventory and/or major database cleanup projects that resulted in purging a significant number of bibliographic records
  • Libraries may have added holdings and/or items to collections that did not require them in the legacy system (e.g. special collections, government documents, or microforms)
  • The counting method for e-books and e-journals differs slightly from the old methods used to derive the data from SFX, Serials Solutions, or ILS records

Q:  What wording would be useful if we need a standard/generic explanation for this for every library?

A:  If the reported data has changed significantly, individual campuses should supply a clarifying comment.  However, the following generic comment will cover most situations:

  • “Due to the ILS migration to the new Unified Library Management System - Alma this year, methods for calculating this data have changed."