VATL – Making Sense of TAFE Library Statistics Cathie Jilovsky Annalisa Kristof 15 June 2007

CAVAL’s Services

• Advice & Consultancy • Cataloguing Processing & Indexing • Information Systems Management & Support • Member Services • Preservation & Storage Solutions • Statistics & Benchmarking • Training & Professional Development

Strategic Initiatives

2007-2009

• • • • • CARM2 Online statistics Vernacular cataloguing Online course delivery Executive leadership program scoping study

Statistics & Benchmarking

• annual collection & publication of statistics for groups of libraries   CAUL, VATL • statistical consultancies Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong • online interactive statistics  CAUL  pilot in progress with major Asian libraries • LIBQUAL+ • benchmarking

CAUL Statistics

The Australian & New Zealand Academic Library (CAUL) Statistics  CAUL = Council of Australian University Librarians  CONZUL = Council of New Zealand University Librarians

CAUL Statistics Focus Group

Goals • accurate, relevant & authoritative data • consistency of data over time • data available widely – accessible, public & widely promoted • data which permits analysis of trends • collection of both traditional & new information • training/feedback opportunities for relevant university library staff • statistics - cheap, useful & valid

Issues - 2005 Collection (1)

• Definitions – COL.60: Recurrent .

• What should be counted for this statistic? – Col. 72: External students • Definition • Reference dates – Clarification requested

Issues - 2005 Collection (2)

• Forms – Zeros and blank fields – CP and sum fields – VATL Form not used

VATL 2005 output

Possible future directions

• Continue to refine and adapt Excel spreadsheet • Consider implementing CAVAL’s online statistics option • Price can be negotiated – VATL libraries are CAVAL members & long-term customers

Why Online Statistics?

• development and provision of an online statistical website • implementation of sophisticated functionality • improvements to the collection processes for the individual libraries • provision of a sustainable online statistical service for VATL

Implementation process

• CAVAL hosts website • libraries enter data using input module • CAVAL provides help desk & assistance as required • validated data will be available to all for online benchmarking • initial pilot process, followed by evaluation phase

Online statistics benefits (1)

• Online comparison of institutional data – up to 15 institutions can be compared using an unlimited number of variables.

• Ratios and other statistical measures can be calculated easily, displaying results online for all the institutions in the dataset in ranked order • Summary statistics – online display of descriptive statistics for all of the institutions in the data set.

Online statistics benefits (2)

• Graphs – displays an online graph for 1 institution & up 10 variables, or up to 10 institutions & 1 variable. • Download data – extracts & downloads a subset of the data by selecting the institutions, regions, variables, & range of year(s) • Input module - online input of data by library staff, enabling more efficient data collection, incorporating new functionality such as data validation & online help.

CAUL Online Statistics

Questions?

CAVAL Collaborative Solutions

Cathie Jilovsky Email: [email protected]

Web: http://www.caval.edu.au

CAUL Statistics http://www.caul.edu.au/statistics http://statistics.caul.edu.au