Analytics Training

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

FY22 Training Series

Date and Time	Topic	Presenters	Recording and Materials
January 12, 3-4 p.m.	Alma Analytics 101	Ian Scofield, OSU	Recording (1 hour) Slides (PDF)
February 9, 2-3 p.m	Alliance Case Studies in Analytics	Central Analytics Standing Group	Recording (50 mins) Alma Analytics for Weeding (PPTX) Sample spreadsheet to construct a query to compare vendor titles with Alma records (XSLX) Using Analytics for bibliographic record cleanup (PPTX)
March 9, 2-3 p.m.	Building and Using Dashboards	Jian Wang, PSU Nick Schockmel, UW	Recording (58 mins) Slides (PDF)
April 13, 2-3 p.m.	Enhancing Analytics Reports with SQL	Michele DeSilva, COCC Paul Ojennus, Whitworth	Recording (58 mins) Slides, Part 1 (Google Slides) Slides, Part 2 (PPTX)
May 11, 2-3 p.m.	Making Usable Reports Out of Imperfect Data	Central Analytics Standing Group	Recording (53 mins) Call Number Sorting and Data Type Conversions (PPTX) Cleaning Up the Published Field with Regular Expressions and Evaluate Functions (PPTX) Using SQL Substring to Find Mismatched Data (PDF)
June 8, 2-3 p.m.	Data Visualizations in Analytics and Excel	Central Analytics Standing Group	Recording (56 mins) Advanced Data Visualizations (PDF) Sparklines in Excel (PDF) Bubble Charts in Excel (PPTX) Complex Data in DV (PDF)

General

Alma Analytics

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 (November 2016; Video, 12:38)
- Navigating 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 (Summer Meeting 2019; PPTX)
- General overview of Analytics. Including:
  - Accessing and structure of 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 Analytics (May 2020; PPTX)
Subject Areas (October 2020; PDF) – Description of fields including their mappings in Alma and MARC source. Includes a how-to on combining Subject Areas.
Tips for Analytics Organization (eBUG 2016; PDF)
Sorting Two or More Fields (July 2016; PDF)
Display and Styling (January 2017; Video, 12:15)
- 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 (July 2016; PDF)
- Changing column heading display
- Adding totals to the end of columns
- Coloring every other row.
Visualizing Analytics (May 2020; PDF) – Turn your reports into graphs and charts.

Primo Analytics

Primo Analytics is a separate system reached from Primo back office, where you can find reports on how users interact with the Primo discovery system, such as the most popular searches, or the number of times specific facets or devices were used. See the Primo Analytics Guide (April 2020; PDF).

FAQs

The Analytics FAQs page contains answers to frequently asked questions about Alma/Primo Analytics.

Dashboards

Dashboard Prompts (April 2017; Video, 11:52)
Creating a Dashboard Prompt, Widget, & Emails from a Report (Summer Meeting 2019; PPTX)
Loans by Call Number Range (July 2016; PDF)

Annual Reports

ACRL Canned Reports (Updated January 2021; PDF)
ACRL Analytics Review (January 2021; Video, 35:33)
IPEDS Canned Reports (Updated September 2021; PDF)

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 (2019; Video, 5:20)
Loans by call number range (July 2016; PDF)
Loans over the last three days (July 2016; PDF)

Collection Services

Analytics Display Network Zone Information (December 2020; Video, 13:16)
All items from one barcode (October 2020; Video, 6:35) – Find all items from a single barcode by using the step feature to retrieve the MMS ID.
Collections – Tracking Age (2019; Video, 7:53)
Creating Formulas for Expenditures (February 2017; Video, 9:06)
Create an Automated Report on Gift Funds (July 2016; PDF) – 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 (March 2020; PDF) – Identify items given the request type Equipment to Withdraw so these items can be withdrawn
Parsing information from the MARC 300 field (February 2021; PDF)
Sorting by LC Call Number (July 2016; PDF)
Weeding (2020; PDF) – See examples of using Analytics for weeding projects within the scope of three different scenarios

Electronic Resources

Analytics for Fun and Profit: Post-CDI Cleanup and Beyond (April 2021; Video, 54:50)
Counter and SUSHI (February 2021; PPTX)
Ebooks Widget Analytics Report: Can be copied from the Analytics Catalog under /shared/Community/Reports/Consortia/Orbis Cascade Alliance/Analytics Group.

Training Materials for the Fulfillment Dashboard (2018; PDF)

Advanced

Filter an Analysis Based on Another Analysis (December 2016; Video, 8:08)
Pivot Tables in a Nutshell (July 2020; Video, 4:55)
Copy an Analytics report (October 2020; Video, 2:44) – For backup or for sending to a colleague.
Combining & Visualizing Data with Alma (June 2021; Video, 55:51) – An introduction to the OAS (Oracle Analytics Server) and DV (Data Visualization)

Advanced SQL in Filters and Formulas

Using SQL & Formulas (October 2020; PDF) – A short introduction with examples
Helpful Functions (eBUG 2016; PDF)
Analytics 201 – SQL Statements in Oracle Business Intelligence (OBI) (Summer Meeting 2019; PPTX)
- Derive hour, day, etc. from date
- Date arithmetic
- Tops, bottoms
Tips and Tricks with SQL (January 2021; PDF) – Focuses on time calculations.
Analytics Trips and Tricks (May 2021; Video, 54:15)
- Accounting for Lifecycle – 2:23
- Sorting by call number – 3:56
- Preventing row merging – 5:58
- Removing time from a date field – 7:22
- Conditional formatting (plus bins and local parameters) – 9:11
- Grouping AND and OR in filters – 15:30
- Sharing analysis via XML – 21:30
- Exporting to Excel – formatted v. data – 23:44
- CountDistinct – 25:39
- Entering SQL Formulas – 31:04
- SQL functions for relative date filters – 32:55
- SQL CASE function to recode values in results – 35:10
- SQL functions to parse strings – 38:39
- Creating an Analytics object for reusable code – 40:50
- Paste a batch of identifiers into a filter – 42:29
- Separating a large report into smaller reports – 43:56
- Q&A Session starts – 47:30
Loans Over the Last Three Days (July 2016; PDF) – Show loans for the past three days using TIMESTAMPADD, making a graph and widget.
Using Two Subject Areas (July 2016; PDF) – Slides from Doris Munson July 2016. Modified 2020.

Need Help?

Take advantage of the wide-spread expertise of the hundreds subscribed to the Alma mailing list. To subscribe to the Alma-L list, please visit the following link: https://exlibrisusers.org/listinfo/alma

Use the Central Analytics Request Form to send CASG any questions or submit ideas for new shared reports.

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