Statistics: Streamlining annual stats reporting practices (roundup of decisions)

The annual stats reporting process is an exercise in “good enough”

Annual statistics reporting is a snapshot in time. We balance accuracy with the need to maintain streamlined reporting practices that support all campuses.

Data categorization decisions will stand until a change is requested by the campus

Variables used in annual statistics reporting are unlikely to require frequent changes to their categorization (locations flagged as Course Reserves in one year are likely to remain Course Reserves; User Groups flagged as Campus Undergraduates are likely to remain Campus Undergraduates). One possible exception are how licensed resources collections are categorized (e.g., a Trial package may be purchased); these will be handled separately.

Yearly data categorization decision making will focus on new values and values that received special handling in previous years

Throughout the year, campuses create or begin using new values that need to be categorized for statistics reporting purposes (new location codes, new user groups). Additionally, some campuses request special handling for select values (e.g., Resource Types they want to count in a particular way). During the preparation period for the next annual statistics cycle, these values will be isolated and shared with each campus for review and decision making.

Do not attempt to report withdrawn stats as part of AASA-PT’s annual stats work

In FY22/23 and FY23/24 AASA-PT attempted to report statistics about campuses' withdrawn materials. There is no single harmonized approach to flagging withdrawn materials in SILS, so all solutions required bespoke queries by campus (including not reporting, because the campus does not retain records for withdrawn materials in SILS). AASA-PT will not attempt to centralize reporting for withdrawn statistics unless there is further systemwide harmonization; until that time, campuses will track and report withdrawn statistics locally.

Only count records that are “Active” or “In Repository” and are not Suppressed

Without the need to report Withdrawn statistics, AASA-PT will establish a global filter to exclude any Physical records that have a Lifecycle other than “Active.”

The NZ build already has global filters to exclude all e-Inventory records that have a Lifecycle other than “In Repository”, and exclude Suppressed records (Physical Items and e-Inventory). This new global filter would be applied in addition to the existing filters.

Remove the “Special” library category from UCL/UCOP stats detail reporting

In FY22/23 AASA-PT investigated options for identifying Special Collections and Archives locations to report these collections separately from other collections. Consultation with HOSC highlighted that the UCL annual statistics have historically focused only on select categories of Special Collections materials, and that a large portion of these collections are not represented in SILS or the non-ILS data submitted by campuses. HOSC and CoUL both affirmed that AASA-PT should not report Special Collections and Archives as a distinct category in the UCL/UCOP annual statistics (some special collections will still be reported to ARL by select campuses). This removal brings AASA-PT’s reporting practices for UCL/UCOP annual statistics in line with this directive.

Remove the SCA Locations variable from the NZ build

In alignment with HOSC’s directive to not report Special Collections as a distinct category in UCL/UCOP annual statistics, AASA-PT will remove the SCA Locations variable from the NZ build. This will simplify the build and reduce the review/categorization burden on campuses who do not submit the Special library supplement as part of their annual reporting to ARL.

Create a new ARL Library Category variable

To support the campuses that submit the Special library supplement to ARL, without increasing the review/categorization burden on campuses that do not, AASA-PT will create a new ARL Library Category variable. Campuses that want to report some collections to ARL in a different category than they are reported to UCL/UCOP will be able to do so; campuses that do not want to change categories based on the organization being reported to do not have to. As a default, this variable will categorize campus locations in alignment with their UCL/UCOP location categorizations; campuses will request categorization changes as needed.

Do not pursue identifying additional open access collections to exclude from e-Inventory statistics

UC Libraries exclude select open access e-resources packages from annual statistics reporting, in alignment with guidelines and requirements from the different reporting obligations (e.g., excluding Directory of Open Access Books, in alignment with ARL reporting guidelines). In FY23/24, AASA-PT briefly discussed whether additional collections should also be excluded, both to due to the degree to which records are duplicated in other collections.

Do not pursue centralizing CEAL stats reporting at this time

AASA-PT is charged to “Determine what is possible within the current SILS infrastructure for standardized annual reporting for UCOP, ARL, and IPEDS, CEAL (priority order).” CEAL reporting institutions have shared that existing methods for tracking statistics for reporting to CEAL requires significant manual work, but that it is currently not possible to track these statistics within the SILS environment; proposed projects to track this data in SILS are not harmonized, and reporting will require a campus-by-campus approach. AASA-PT will not pursue centralizing CEAL statistics reporting at this time; this decision will be reconsidered if campuses harmonize their tracking practices in such a way that centralized statistics reporting is feasible.

Do not pursue further deduplication of titles in FY24/25

In FY22/23, AASA-PT explored different options for deduplicating titles counts within an individual campus, to ensure that reporting of title statistics does not count multiple copies of a title as separate titles. Currently, records are deduplicated by MMS ID; further deduplication may be possible using other ID fields, but at this time AASA-PT will prioritize maintaining a stable set of criteria for annual statistics and will not pursue implementing any changes to current title-level statistics deduplication practices. This decision may be revisited in the future.

Streamline e-Inventory reporting sub-categories

In FY22/23 and FY23/24 AASA-PT reported four subcategories for licensed resources statistics: Purchased DDA, Unknown Purchase Status DDA, Unknown if DDA, and eResources (excl. DDA).

Beginning in FY24/25 reporting, AASA-PT will report only two subcategories:

• eResources (purchased/licensed/OA)

• Unpurchased eResources (DDA/PDA/EBA)**

Both subcategories will be reported in UCL/UCOP statistics, to show the full universe of electronic resources that are available to UC students and scholars. Only eResources (purchased/licensed/OA) will be reported to ACRL and ARL (unpurchased materials are excluded from reporting to both obligations).

Use the same library categorization decision for collections and circulation stats

In previous years AASA-PT has asked campuses to identify what library category (General, Law, Health Sciences, Affiliates) their collections statistics should be counted towards, and has separately asked campuses to identify what library category their circulation statistics should be counted towards. Starting in FY24/25, campuses will be asked to make this decision once for each shelving location; this decision will be applied to both collections and circulation statistics reporting.