Incorporating data insight into your library decision making processes enhances the quality of decisions, reduces uncertainty, and contributes to your library’s overall success. The insights help you make strategic decisions that positively impact members and the overall effectiveness of your Library.
Data insights are extremely valuable for several reasons
- Reducing subjectivity: Data provides an objective basis for decision making. It allows you to rely on facts and evidence rather than subjective opinions. which can be unreliable.
- Provides evidence and rationale: Using data in decision making promotes transparency within libraries. When decisions are based on data, it’s easier to communicate the rationale behind choices, fostering trust and accountability among team members.
- Uncovers patterns and trends: Data enables you to make informed decisions. By analysing relevant data, you gain insights into patterns, trends, and relationships that can inform your choices. This helps in predicting outcomes and understanding potential impact.
- Allows for prediction and forecasting: Using past data, you can estimate future outcomes and make decisions that better prepare you for what’s ahead. By regularly analysing data, libraries can identify opportunities for enhancement and innovation, leading to ongoing improvements in processes and performance.
A Library Management System [LMS] like Libero 6 serves as the foundation in fulfilling the reporting requirements essential for the seamless functioning of a library. The comprehensive capabilities of an LMS play a pivotal role in enhancing and simplifying reporting processes.
Here, we explore several key dimensions through which an LMS supports your libraries reporting needs:
- Catalogue management: inventory reports etc.
- Member management: Member behaviour, borrowing history, and overdue fines, track reading preferences, and identify the most popular resources among members.
- Circulation reports: Circulation patterns highlighting the popularity of certain items, genres, or authors.
- Financial reports: reports on how the library’s budget is being utilised, tracking expenditures on acquisitions, subscriptions, and other library services. As well as tracking fines and fees for overdue or lost items.
- Resource utilisation: reports on the usage of electronic resources, databases, and other online materials.
- Interlibrary loan reports: reports on the number of items borrowed or lent, helping in assessing the demand for specific materials.
The Libero 6 software currently provides a Crystal Reports interface to allow library staff to report on data stored within their Libero 6 database. Access to reports is controlled by security roles. Libero 6 offers an enhanced package of reports, known as “Community Reports,” available to be accessed directly within the application. Locally modified or custom reports can be edited by the library and uploaded into the dashboard within Libero 6. Data from reports can be exported in a variety of formats.
Within Libero 6 there is a portfolio of over 200 standard reports, containing key metrics and statistics from the library environment. Libero Cloud libraries can immediately run any user report available in the Libero Exchange and any new or updated reports are available to make use of immediately.
Libero 6 allows you direct access to your data using any ODBC [Microsoft Open Database Connectivity] reporting tool to query the database and extract the required data. To make this process simpler, a detailed data dictionary is supplied with the Libero 6 software. ODBC integration allows reports to be scheduled, exported on demand, or emailed.
By leveraging your libraries data with a Libero 6 LMS you’re not just making decisions based on intuition or anecdotal evidence. You are though grounding your choices in tangible, evidence-based insights, improving outcomes and enhancing the overall value and impact of your library services.
Interested in discovering more about how Libero can deliver a suite of reports and data insights for your library?