VATL – Making Sense of TAFE Library Statistics

Cathie JilovskyAnnalisa Kristof15 June 2007

CAVAL’s Services• Advice & Consultancy

• Cataloguing Processing & Indexing

• Information Systems Management & Support

• Member Services

• Preservation & Storage Solutions

• Statistics & Benchmarking

• Training & Professional Development

Strategic Initiatives

2007-2009

• CARM2• Online statistics• Vernacular cataloguing• Online course delivery• Executive leadership program scoping

study

Statistics & Benchmarking

• annual collection & publication of statistics for groups of libraries

CAUL, VATL • statistical consultancies

Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong

• online interactive statistics CAUL pilot in progress with major Asian libraries

• LIBQUAL+• benchmarking

CAUL Statistics

The Australian & New Zealand Academic Library (CAUL) Statistics

CAUL = Council of Australian University Librarians

CONZUL = Council of New Zealand University Librarians

<www.caul.edu.au/statistics>

CAUL Statistics Focus GroupGoals• accurate, relevant & authoritative data • consistency of data over time• data available widely – accessible, public &

widely promoted• data which permits analysis of trends• collection of both traditional & new

information• training/feedback opportunities for relevant

university library staff• statistics - cheap, useful & valid

Issues - 2005 Collection (1)

• Definitions– COL.60: Recurrent .

• What should be counted for this statistic?

– Col. 72: External students• Definition

• Reference dates– Clarification requested

Issues - 2005 Collection (2)

• Forms– Zeros and blank fields– CP and sum fields– VATL Form not used

VATL 2005 output

Possible future directions

• Continue to refine and adapt Excel spreadsheet

• Consider implementing CAVAL’s online statistics option

• Price can be negotiated – VATL libraries are CAVAL members & long-term customers

Why Online Statistics?• development and provision of an online

statistical website

• implementation of sophisticated functionality

• improvements to the collection processes for the individual libraries

• provision of a sustainable online statistical service for VATL

Implementation process• CAVAL hosts website

• libraries enter data using input module

• CAVAL provides help desk & assistance as required

• validated data will be available to all for online benchmarking

• initial pilot process, followed by evaluation phase

Online statistics benefits (1)

• Online comparison of institutional data – up to 15 institutions can be compared using an unlimited number of variables.

• Ratios and other statistical measures can be calculated easily, displaying results online for all the institutions in the dataset in ranked order

• Summary statistics – online display of descriptive statistics for all of the institutions in the data set.

Online statistics benefits (2)

• Graphs – displays an online graph for 1 institution & up 10 variables, or up to 10 institutions & 1 variable.

• Download data – extracts & downloads a subset of the data by selecting the institutions, regions, variables, & range of year(s)

• Input module - online input of data by library staff, enabling more efficient data collection, incorporating new functionality such as data validation & online help.

CAUL Online Statistics

<statistics.caul.edu.au>

Questions?

CAVAL Collaborative Solutions

Cathie Jilovsky

Email: cathiej@caval.edu.au

Web: http://www.caval.edu.au

CAUL Statistics

http://www.caul.edu.au/statistics

http://statistics.caul.edu.au