Analytics

A practical guide brought to you by the Central Analytics Standing Group, based on questions and feedback from Alliance members like you.

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General

Analytics lets you build reports on your institution’s Alma data (Institution Zone or IZ). You can request reports on Network Zone or NZ data. Read details about the difference in accessing IZ vs. NZ data.

Introduction to Analytics

  • Navigating Alma Analytics
  • Menus, icons, and structure of Analytics
  • Demonstrates how to copy and paste a report
  • Addresses a few key issues you might encounter
  • Covers details about customization and displaying of reports
  • Rearranging columns in the compiled report

Analytics 101 – Slides from the 2019 Summer Meeting.

  • General overview of Alma Analytics. Including:
    • Accessing and structure of Alma Analytics
    • Utilizing out-of-the-box analytic reports
    • Retrieving and using community reports
  • Creating a new analytic report:
    • Compiling a report
      • Selection of subject area
      • Adding criteria
      • Adding filters
      • Setting rows to add up to totals
      • Adding views
  • Creating a new dashboard, prompts, and adding reports
  • Adding Analytic widgets in the Alma interface

Navigating Alma Analytics

Subject Areas – Description of fields including their mappings in Alma and MARC source. Includes a how-to on combining Subject Areas.

Tips for Analytics Organization

Sorting Two or More Fields

Display and Styling – 12 Minute Video

  • Editing properties for analysis, tables, and columns
  • Including null values in a report
  • Hierarchy of columns
  • Enabling user interactions across multiple tables
  • Styling and setting sizes for tables and columns
  • Setting column and data formatting,
  • Customizing column headings
  • Conditional formatting for rows and columns

Modifying the Look of an Analysis – PDF (July 2016). Changing column heading display; Adding totals to the end of columns; Coloring every other row.

Visualizing Analytics – Turn your reports into graphs and charts.

Dashboards

Dashboard Prompts – 12 Minute Video

Creating a Dashboard Prompt, Widget, & Emails from a Report – Slides from 2019 Summer Meeting session titled Analytics 201.

Loans by Call Number Range – PDF, Kevin Edwards, PCC, (July 2016)

Annual Reports

ACRL Canned Reports Updated – Jan. 6, 2021

IPEDS Canned Reports Updated: March 17, 2020

Analytics in Action

Analytics in Action Videos – A series of videos created in 2019-2020 about using Analytics to instruct and inspire you!

Index and descriptions of videos.

Service Area Reports

Circulation

What books loaned the most last year

Loans by call number range – PDF

Loans over the last three days – PDF

Collection Services

Alma Analytics Display Network Zone Information by Paul Ojennus, Whitworth University

All items from one barcode – Find all items from a single barcode by using the step feature to retrieve the MMS ID.

Collections – Tracking Age

Counter and SUSHI

Expenditures Formulas

Create an Automated Report on Gift Funds – Drill down into various fund transaction types. Work through creating formulas. Remove extraneous text in a column. Create scheduled email reports.

Monitoring Items in a Request Type identify items given the request type Equipment to Withdraw so these items can be withdrawn

Parsing information from the MARC 300 field

Sorting by LC Call Number

Weeding – See examples of using Alma Analytics for weeding projects within the scope of three different scenarios

Electronic Resources

Analytics for Fun and Profit: Post-CDI Cleanup and Beyond – 53 Min. video

Presentation by CASG Members – Jian Wang (PSU), Caroline Reul (Reed), and Dusty Gorman (Puget Sound) on April 1, 2021.

Counter and SUSHI

Ebooks Widget Analytics Report: Can be copied from the Analytics Catalog under /shared/Community/Reports/Consortia/Orbis Cascade Alliance/Analytics Group.

Resource Sharing

Resource Sharing Fulfillment (RSF)

Advanced

Filter an Analysis Based on Another Analysis – 8 Minute Video McShane 2016

Pivot Tables in a Nutshell

Copy an Analytics report – For backup or for sending to a colleague.

Advanced SQL in Filters and Formulas

Using SQL & Formulas – A short introduction with examples

Helpful Functions and formulas

Analytics 201 – SQL Statements in Oracle Business Intelligence (OBI) – Derive hour, day, etc. from date; date arithmetic; tops, bottoms

Tips and Tricks with SQL – Focuses on time calculations.

CASG Presents: Analytics Trips and Tricks – This presentation on May 10, 2021 focuses on tips and tricks that are useful in most subject areas. The approximate time that the sections starts follows the presenters name. The session covered the following topics:

  • Accounting for Lifecycle – Dusty Gorman (University of Puget Sound) 2:23
  • Sorting by call number – Dusty Gorman (University of Puget Sound) 3:56
  • Preventing row merging – Dusty Gorman (University of Puget Sound) 5:58
  • Removing time from a date field – Dusty Gorman (University of Puget Sound) 7:22
  • Conditional formatting (plus bins and local parameters) – Caroline Reul (Reed College) 9:11
  • Grouping AND and OR in filters – Caroline Reul (Reed College) 15:30
  • Sharing analysis via XML – Jian Wang, (Portland State University) 21:30
  • Exporting to Excel – formatted v. data – Jian Wang, (Portland State University) 23:44
  • CountDistinct – Jian Wang, (Portland State University) 25:39
  • Entering SQL Formulas – Nicholas Schockmel (University of Washington) 31:04
  • SQL functions for relative date filters – Nicholas Schockmel (University of Washington) 32:55
  • SQL CASE function to recode values in results – Nicholas Schockmel (University of Washington) 35:10
  • SQL functions to parse strings – Nicholas Schockmel (University of Washington) 38:39
  • Creating an Analytics object for reusable code – Nicholas Schockmel (University of Washington) 40:50
  • Paste a batch of identifiers into a filter – Nicholas Schockmel (University of Washington) 42:29
  • Separating a large report into smaller reports – Nicholas Schockmel (University of Washingto:n) 43:56
  • Q&A Session starts – 47:30

Loans Over the Last Three Days – PDF, Bill Kelm, Willamette, (July 2016) Show loans for the past three days using TIMESTAMPADD, making a graph and widget.

Using Two Subject Areas – Slides from Doris Munson July 2016. Modified 2020.

Need Help?

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Have an idea for a shared report? Need a report run in the Network Zone? Need something added to Analytics such as a MARC field? Use the Central Analytics Request Form.