Recently in statistics Category

The 2008 Outagamie County and Waupaca County circulation matrices are now posted on the OWLS Statistics page.  Each county's circulation matrix shows the circulation by every library in the county to every jurisdiction in the county that doesn't operate a library.  A county's circulation matrix provides a detailed breakdown of the circulation for which the county reimburses its municipal libraries, i.e., it's the circulation we use to make the annual county budget requests.  In addition, the population and circulation per capita is listed for each town.  Take a look and see how much the neighboring towns use your library.  You might be surprised by the numbers.

The 2008 Circulation Summary for OWLS member libraries been posted on the OWLS Statistics page.  This summary reports the circulation from each OWLS library to residents and many different categories of non-residents.  In 2008, circulation at OWLS libraries increased 5.8% over 2007 circulation.  It's interesting to note that circulation to residents increased more in 2008 (6.2%) than circulation to non-residents increased (5.3%).

I have also posted the 2008 Crossover Borrowing Summary on the statistics page.  This summary shows how many items were loaned by each member library to residents of every other community with a library.  While there have been some significant shifts in crossover lending and borrowing over the years for a few libraries, the total amount of crossover borrowing has grown slower than general circulation has grown.  Crossover borrowing has increased at an average rate of just over 2% over the past five years.

I'll be posting a 2008 Circulation Matrix for each of the counties in the near future.  As always, please contact me if you have any questions.

At their October meeting, the OWLS Board approved the 2009 System Plan and Budget. The 2009 Plan is not significantly different from the current Plan.  Because OWLS financial position is healthy no major reductions in services are planned for 2009.  However, given the difficult economy and the potential for future revenue decreases, we are doing some belt-tightening.  The 2009 operating budget represents a 1.8% decrease from the 2008 operating budget.

I encourage you to take a look at the new Plan, especially the first six pages which describe the context in which the Plan has been developed.  If you're into numbers and statistics you might also enjoy looking at page 2, which show how OWLS libraries compared with libraries in other systems in 2007.

As always, be sure to contact me with any questions or comments.

I recently updated the service population estimates for OWLS member libraries.  These latest estimates are based on 2007 circulation figures and 2007 DOA population estimates.  The Estimating Service Population (L4L) page explains the methodologies used to calculate the different service population numbers.

The 2007 Outagamie County and Waupaca County circulation matrices are now posted on the OWLS Statistics page.  Each county's circulation matrix shows the circulation by every library in the county to every jurisdiction in the county that doesn't operate a library.  A county's circulation matrix provides a detailed breakdown of the circulation for which the county reimburses its municipal libraries, i.e., it's the circulation used for the annual budget request.  If you're curious about how much each of your surrounding towns use your library, you'll want to take a look.

Have you heard that Wisconsin public libraries return $4.06 for each dollar of taxpayer investment or that the state's public libraries contribute over three-quarters of a billion dollars annually to the state's economy?

These findings are among those included in The Economic Contribution of Wisconsin Public Libraries to the Economy of Wisconsin, which was released on May 1st.  The study was conducted by Madison-based NorthStar Economics, Inc.  The Executive Summary and the entire study are available online.

A news release template (MS Word) is available for local libraries to customize and distribute to area media.  Also available is a PDF-format slide presentation presented by David Ward, President of NorthStar Economics as the keynote address to the Wisconsin Association of Public Libraries on May 1, 2008.

Last year the Legislative Audit Bureau was charged with conducting a best practices review of public library services in Wisconsin.  The final report was issued today and can be found on Legislative Audit Bureau web site.  The full report and a shorter report of just the highlights are available.  You can also listen to a podcast of the highlights.

I'd recommend that you read the highlights and at least skim the full report.  I plan to distribute a copy of the highlights to the OWLS Board, and I'd recommend that you do the same with your boards.  I'd be interested to hear your comments about the review, especially about what the LAB has determined to be "best practices."

Today I discovered that the recently posted 2007 Circulation Summary was not 100% correct. Specifically, the data contained in the Counties Adjacent to OWLS section of the report (i.e., the second page) was incorrect. The other three pages of the report were correct. I have made all the necessary corrections and have posted the corrected version on OWLSweb.

I recently posted the 2007 Circulation Summary for OWLS member libraries on OWLSweb.  This summary reports the circulation from all OWLS libraries to local residents and various categories of non-residents.  The total system circulation increased by 5.0% in 2007, with 13 libraries experiencing circulation increases and 3 libraries experiencing decreases.  One of the most interesting facts about 2007 circulation is that non-resident circulation grew at a higher rate than resident circulation, reversing the trend of the previous two years.  Please share any observations you might have, and let me know if you have any questions.

Every year I look at how various measures for OWLS libraries compare with libraries in other systems. Some years I also include NFLS libraries in the comparison. I recently completed 2006 comparisons for OWLS and NFLS. While it's interesting to look at the raw data, conversion to per capita measurements makes it possible to compare OWLS with other systems that have larger or smaller populations.