Patron request statistics supplied by central
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Summit Borrowing Statistics Patron request statistics supplied by central |
| Requests | Fulfillments | Cancels | Transfers | Comparing central and local |
1. Statistics from Summit. The following statistical information is available from the central system "on demand” via Web access. Reports are posted by Alliance monthly, with annual summaries and occasional special reports.
· requests (by member institution, showing Owning and Borrowing site)
· fulfillments (by member institution, showing Owning and Borrowing site to illustrate loans and borrows)
· cancellations (by member institution and reason for cancellation)
· transfers (by member institution, showing the sites that the system transferred the requests from and to)
INN-Reach Statistics programs available through character-based access (1.) and the Web (2.) use different sources for counting or reporting activity, and the numbers vary by a small amount. (For example, February 2000 totals: 13,190 vs 13,172). III explains that a few transactions counted for the Web reports end up being counted twice. With this negligible difference, 1/10 of 1% -- or .001, III is not likely to address the inconsistency until they work on other modifications to Web statistics.
2. Statistics from Summit - more. Several types of patron request statistics are available monthly on the Summit central system, character-based access, and are not archived on the system for future reference. Staff at Alliance collect the data and include it in the monthly "Sharing Materials" statistics reports available in the staff web pages. These reports provide the number of
· requests by patron type (based on Summit PType code) · requests by loan rule (based on the central IType for regular loan and short loan)
· available copies (for example, 128 requests where there was no available copy; 991 requests with 1 available copy; 464 requests where there were 2 available copies; etc.)
· # of items in bib record (i.e. copies and/or volumes, regardless of status or availability)
· # of owning institutions (for example, 939 requests for a title with only 1 owning inst'n, 446 with 2, 312 with 3, and so forth)
3. More statistics? Member institutions have access to additional information on the local system, through local circulation statistics and Web Management Reports. All Alliance member institution codes begin with the number 9 (so a wildcard such as 9* would get them all), and all Pickup Anywhere location codes begin with 7. Regular loans are circulated on central IType 200; 3-day loans are IType 202. On the local system, see the section for INN-Reach (usually following Collection and Acquisitions). For example, local sites can get INN-Reach (Summit Borrowing) Transactions by Title and Call no. to see what their patrons are requesting. Also see Management information and statistics on the local system.
The number of requests made, as of the day made.
A request made on April 30 is included in the monthly statistics for April.
Items checked out to an institution via INN-Reach, as of day checked out at owning site.
Exception: If item misses the Institution Checkout step at Owning Site Borrowing Site, so Borrowing Site uses "insert barcode" to receive (checkin) item, the transaction is not counted with Fulfillments.
The April 30 request filled by the owning site on May 1 is counted as a fulfillment in the monthly statistics for May.
Caution about comparing Requests and Fulfillments: Not all requests are represented by fulfillments in the same month, and not all fulfillments relate to requests of the same month. For example, there may be 12,000 requests in May, with 11,200 fulfilled in May and another 200 filled in early June. Also see discussion under Cancel with re-request.
Cancellation statistics include actions from two sources
staff cancel: items for which the request is canceled by staff (INN-Reach module, no re-request)
This option is rarely used - use only when patron no longer wants the material.
In local system: Summit INN-Reach circ programs/Display and alter a hold queue (no re-request). All of these are recorded as a "cancellation"
system cancel: items canceled by system, when staff use Local circ module to cancel (with re-request) but system is unable to locate an available copy at another site.
In local system: Holds management/Display and alter a hold queue. Only some of these result in recording a "cancellation"
Cancel with re-request. Cancellations are counted as fulfillments when the system finds another available copy, transfers the request to that site, and the request is filled (result of staff at the original owning site using Cancel with re-request in local circ module). In other words, a "cancel" is not counted as cancel when that's only an intermediate step in the process. For an item that staff cancels with re-request:
The request: The request is counted once only, at the first site selected as the owning site. It is not counted again, as a new request, when the system transfers the request to a second site as a result of "Cancel with re-request".
The fulfillment: If the request is filled, it is counted at that owning site, regardless of where the request was first placed. If the second site fills the request, they have a "fulfillment" recorded without a "request" being recorded.
The cancel: A cancel is counted at the site from which the system could find no other available copy to request. That may be the first site, or a second site, or a third, and so on. So a site may have a "cancel" recorded without a "request" to match it.
Therefore, at any local site, it is possible that requests will not equal the sum of cancels + fulfillments.
Cancellation reasons
Cancellation reason is recorded by staff when request is cancelled. Cancellation reasons were updated in summer/fall 2005, and Reason #5 changed from Large/Fragile (Too large/fragile to loan) to SSR (Item is available locally) on Sept. 23, 2005.
For more information see Cancel requests, and Reasons (For scenario detail see Sequence of events)
Re-Requests that result when the owning site cancels a request and the software determines that another site has an available copy. (III, 2/16/00)
Sequence of events in Cancel with re-request (from H > HOLDS management menu/"Display and alter a hold queue")
At 1st site:
· Cancel with re-request. The system automatically tries to find another insititution with an item that can be requested; it does not use the request balancing, or institution priority, table.
· none: If no other institution has an item that can be requested, then a cancellation statistic is added at the first institution.
· finds another: If there is another institution with an item that can be requested then a re request goes there. This is not counted as a "request" statistic at the second institution. It continues to be counted as a "request" stat at the first institution.
At 2nd site:
· Filled. When the second institution sends the item off campus, a fulfillment statistic is added at the second institution but not the first institution.
· Cancel: If the second institution uses the option, "Display and alter a hold queue (no re-request)" then a cancellation statistic is added there. (this option is rarely used - use only when patron no longer wants the material)
· Cancel with re-request: If the second institution uses the option "Display and alter a hold queue" then the system looks for yet another institution with a requestable item.
· None: If it does not find one, then a cancellation statistic is added to the second institution. · Finds another: If it succeeds, then re-request goes to the third institution, and the process continues.
Comparing central and local statistics
Statistics are logged by each system as of the exact date and time of the transaction.
o Fulfillments are recorded at the time of checkout from the lending (owning) site to the borrowing (patron) site.
o Checkout statistics in the member's local system are logged at the time of checkout to the patron
A Summit fulfillment on April 30 will undoubtedly be recorded in the checkout statistics at the borrowing library in the month of May.
Members may be reviewing local circulation statistics for Summit items (9coc0, 9eos0, 9lew0, etc.). When comparing the local and central statistics for a specific month, the numbers will not match (nor would the titles of the items checked out.) Nevertheless, over the long run the statistics will match.
updated: November 28, 2006
