Well, I have done it ... got my collection organised into Item Types and Collection Codes and it looks like it will work really well for the OPAC display!
Setttled on 73 Item Types, but clustered them into 12 collection codes which makes advanced search really useful. Surprisingly, once I changed my thinking about creating the circulation rules, I only needed to create 21 lending rules (I used defaults heavily).
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Live Blog of Future of Libraries non-summit at Darien.
Kathryn Greenhill is such an inspirational librarian ... really, really on to it!This link is directly to her blog Librarians Matter showing how she is sharing what she does... great content - but also great technique and use of tools!
Mobile Library services for iPhone and iPod Touch
Take a look at this brand new service developed by Orange County Libraries in the States, a breathrough way to explore the Library using your iPhone or iPod Touch:
PS. OCLC is a Koha library!
PS. OCLC is a Koha library!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Usage patterns
Well I have just spent the entire day crunching issue stats and its been quite interesting.... odd, but interesting.
Our average daily issues over all items has been rising consistently, 20% over the last 2 years.
The average daily issue count of all rental items (fiction, magazines, DVDs) has remained essentially static, despite issues rising so significantly. Income from rental items has flatlined, virtually unchanged despite halving the rental charge of pay DVDs 18 months ago. We have long suspected there is $x of disposable income to spend at the library, and if people borrow more rental DVDs they spend less on rental fiction etc. This became very obvious once we got the stats on a graph.
Total DVDs make up around 11% of our total issues, up from 4% just 2 years ago; the daily average count of free DVDs has risen by 288% !
Actually looking at our issues in relation to what % of the budget we spent is interesting too:
The DVD collection, which gets about 4% of the total budget, generates 11% of the issues which is a pretty good return on investment.
Generating Revenue through Rental Collections
The starting point for all this was that Council would like us to raise more money. Now that our issues are rising so steadily, not to mention our visitor numbers (both real and virtual), surely we should be able to generate a bigger chunk of our operating expenses ... well, no, sorry.
Those who choose or can afford to rent items rent them, and those who can't don't. And those who are coming to the library because of economic hardship are not coming to spend money. If the motivation to save money gets them to the library, it is also going to get them to bypass rental items for free ones - of which we have plenty.
Our average daily issues over all items has been rising consistently, 20% over the last 2 years.
The average daily issue count of all rental items (fiction, magazines, DVDs) has remained essentially static, despite issues rising so significantly. Income from rental items has flatlined, virtually unchanged despite halving the rental charge of pay DVDs 18 months ago. We have long suspected there is $x of disposable income to spend at the library, and if people borrow more rental DVDs they spend less on rental fiction etc. This became very obvious once we got the stats on a graph.
Total DVDs make up around 11% of our total issues, up from 4% just 2 years ago; the daily average count of free DVDs has risen by 288% !
Actually looking at our issues in relation to what % of the budget we spent is interesting too:
- AV: 6% of our budget generating 15% of our issues.
- LP: 14% of the budget for 15% of our issues.
- Junior: 18% for 15% of our issues.
- ANF: 23% for 15% of our issues.
- Fiction: 19% of the budget generating 30% of the issues.
The DVD collection, which gets about 4% of the total budget, generates 11% of the issues which is a pretty good return on investment.
Generating Revenue through Rental Collections
The starting point for all this was that Council would like us to raise more money. Now that our issues are rising so steadily, not to mention our visitor numbers (both real and virtual), surely we should be able to generate a bigger chunk of our operating expenses ... well, no, sorry.
Those who choose or can afford to rent items rent them, and those who can't don't. And those who are coming to the library because of economic hardship are not coming to spend money. If the motivation to save money gets them to the library, it is also going to get them to bypass rental items for free ones - of which we have plenty.
Monday, March 23, 2009
What the web stretegist should know about Twitter
Great link on the Web4lib digest this morning, linking to this post on on Jeremiah Owyang's blog Social Media, Web Marketing.
Provides a really good introduction to Twitter, plus loads of related links to other posts about using Twitter to market your business or service. Heres an excerpt:
Provides a really good introduction to Twitter, plus loads of related links to other posts about using Twitter to market your business or service. Heres an excerpt:
"The savvy Twitter user realizes that the effective communications aren’t just ‘pushing’ content to readers, but they will also dialogue and converse with others by replying to them. I use this tool as a global chat room, responding to others, building relationships, and listening in. Like blogging, the rule of anti-marketing marketing is required for success, engage your community. Unlike traditional forms of advertising and marketing, Twitter is “opt-in” meaning that users will ‘follow’ a twitter account, abuse will result in a user unsubscribing. "
Friday, March 20, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
The way we read now as out world totters
Nothing original from me, but a link to a great item on Times Online.
A wee quote:
A wee quote:
"Publishing may be facing the same problems as other businesses, but some books are booming. Escapist romantic fiction is in the pink. Mills & Boon is selling three books a second, and Cheryl Cole, of Girls Aloud, has signed a £5million deal to write romantic novels.
Sales of misery memoirs, by contrast, are dwindling: the pleasure of wallowing in someone else's unhappiness, it seems, is less poignant in hard times." More >>
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