Multnomah County Library “Pumps Up the Volume” on Reports
Northwest Oregon’s Multnomah County Library (MCL) operates in a "high-volume" environment. Not only in terms of the number of book volumes, but in the sheer volume of user activity. With up to 240,000 holds in the Millennium system at a given time, across 19 locations and 400 square miles, smart staffing choices and optimization of workflow are crucial for library staff. With an eye toward ever-improving service through better information, MCL has joined with Innovative as a development partner for Encore Reporter.
This new product brings the power and sophistication of Encore to the business of libraries, featuring the latest visual display and discovery tools such as maps and facets and driven by a new, underlying multi-dimensional data structure. Encore Reporter harvests Millennium ILS data to provide statistics that cover a wide range of library operations and user activity— from patron activity, to circulation, to e-journals, to expenditures, and more.
Encore Reporter displaying Google Maps™ mash up of a Zip Code Map displaying 2009 to-date circulation data. Mouse-over image displays circulation of 398,747 for the 92730 ZIP code during this period.
Although library staff "slice and dice data" across many axes just by clicking facets—for literally hundreds of options at a glance—a number of data-sets proved immediately useful to staff. For example, Encore Reporter provides a Transaction Location Trends Report filtered by location. Says Steve Casburn, ILS Coordinator: "As a multi-branch library, this is a huge situation for us. Essentially, we need to know what location did the item come from that is being checked out at given location. This tells us how items are being moved about the system as they are used."
Library staff know that it takes more staff time to process a hold than to just do a checkout of a book already on the shelves. Clicking another facet on the same Transaction Location Trends Report limited by holds-filled exposes this information quickly. Says Casburn: “Knowing the locations where users commonly pick up items lets us make the right staffing choices. It is a fantastic number to make decisions with.”
The most visually arresting feature of Encore Reporter is the Google Maps™ mash-up (pictured). "The ZIP Code Maps Report gives us a clear and simple overview of where our patrons live. When we click the location facet we can see where people are coming from to each location. An example of how that helps us: Many of our patrons live outside the county and use our library via reciprocal borrowing agreements. For our branches near the county lines, we can see how many patrons are coming to them from outside the county and where exactly they are coming from. That’s cool." At present, sixteen libraries, divided equally among public and academic institutions, are part of the Encore development partnership, ensuring there will be options
of value to any type of library.
Learn more about Encore Reporter.