Reporting

Using reports to support library management

Statistical reports should inform and improve every aspect of library operations. They can be based on library borrowers and resources.

Library staff should be confident running reports and be familiar with a range of useful reports that can be used:

As a tool to share the library’s activities with principals, administrators, teaching staff and students.
To support library management and justify spending.

Library management systems with reporting modules enable library staff to run reports to:

Tasmanian school library staff compiled the following list of stats and information that could be included in your yearly library snapshot:

The number of items in the library collection, and its average age.
The value of the whole collection.
The value of missing and damaged items, and the cost of repairs.
The number and value of overdue items.
The most popular items, genres and collections.
The number of items added to, and deleted from, specific collections.
Borrowing numbers of the whole school and specific grades, and a comparision with previous years.
Information about who is not borrowing from the library.
This year’s highlights and issues, plus next year’s goals.
Graphs and percentages are good ways to present information.
A comparison to previous years is always helpful to highlight trends and areas for future development.
Information about interactions with other school staff eg answering questions/queries, researching topics and developing book/reading promotions.
Create an infographic or visual representation of some statistics. Free online software, such as Canva, is used by some schools.