Looking after your data is probably the most important task you're currently neglecting! We know, from talking to customers during training sessions and via comments on the Flagship programme, that analysing and improving your data (or data that you've inherited from a predecessor) is something that most would love to do but hardly anyone has time for. Having inconsistent or inaccurate catalogue data will impact on system performance and there are now the added responsibilities stemming from the GDPR, which mean you need to ensure that you don’t still store the personal information of expired readers. 

We have therefore devised three short courses that can help you get a handle on the state of your data and suggest ways in which it can be improved. Your users deserve access to resources and information as efficiently and accurately as possible, and our Trainers can help you deliver a high quality service you can be proud of. 

"Tom competently tidied up the data, getting rid of old, unnecessary data. He also explained the best way to carry out stocktakes, and deal with withdrawals and missing items to be able to report on the data at a later time. He also sorted out odd anomalies that I wouldn't have noticed. Exactly what I was hoping for - and more!"

Penny James, St Mary's Calne

 

Just the Facts – 30 mins (£70 plus VAT) 

Get an instant snapshot of the quality of your library data. Our Trainers will run a series of reports and management utilities to provide information on the following:

Information on your Catalogue

• The number of Catalogue records you hold for each media type.
• The number of Catalogue records without accessions (or where the accessions are marked withdrawn/missing)
• The value of your entire stock
• The value of your overdue stock (and therefore why it is important you get it back!)

Information on your Circulation setup

• Outline of your current Circulation rules
• Examples of each of the letters you send to your users and their frequency

Statistical reports

• Loans by medium and month
• Loans by year, category and movement
• Loans by fiction/non-fiction and movement (if applicable)
• Readers who have not used the library in some time
• Readers who have expired and could be deleted
• Readers with missing information such as email address or telephone number.
• Which of your circulation copies have not been used in some time.
• Most popular and least popular items

If you are hosted we will not need to be connected to your system to run this service, we will simply email you the details and discuss them with you at a pre-arranged time. Should the data generated by the reports show inconsistencies or gaps we will also recommend additional services or tools to help get everything back in order.

 

Express Health Check – 30 mins (£70 plus VAT)

Our trainers will undertake a series of data analysis test and stress test your system and processes. They will be able to check areas of your system where data anomalies will affect performance and may eventually cause problems. They will also pinpoint areas that may need development or improvement.

• System backup and testing procedures – We will discuss how and when your system is backed up ensuring you also have access to training and testing datasets.
• Data Anomaly Reports – Catalogue records, Accession records and Reader records all have mandatory fields. We will ensure they have been used consistently and highlight to you any areas that may need improving.
• Scheduled events – Don’t undervalue how important scheduled tasks can be! We will ensure basic events are running and reference other events that may assist you.

Following the session the trainer will email you with a personalised health check report which will outline areas where your data requires attention, with supporting documentation that will help you undertake these remedies yourself.

 

"Tom once again helped to organise our data and gave me an understanding of the reports that I can run and ways of organising and keeping our data up to date and tidy."

Lisa Tuff, Grimsby College

 

Comprehensive Health Check – 1-2 hours (£140-280 plus VAT)

This will include all points above, but also incorporates the following discussions and data checks.

• Catalogue improvement – Identifying old Catalogue records, or perhaps those that have no copies (remember all these will be displaying on your OPAC so do need to be up to date).
• Accession statuses – The correct use of Accession statues is so important - they control not only which items are displayed on the OPAC but are essential for generating meaningful reports on your stock, even their value!
• Overdues – Managing your overdues isn't simply about reminding your readers to return overdue items to the library. Heritage Cirqa can provide you with data such as the replacement value of overdue stock, details of readers who have left but have items on loan and can send out pre-overdues to readers to ensure that as much of your stock is avaliable to your users as possible.   
• Notifications – Just like an overdues policy, successfully contacting your readers periodically can really assist the library. We will check the notifications setup in your system, and if not used make some suggestions for what may help you improve reader engagement and optimise stock availability.
• Reader data – Ensuring the reader data you have is entered consistently and how to identify and remove the personal data of readers who have left (essential to comply with the GDPR!).

Should you wish to extend this to a two hour session we will then start to write bespoke reports and changes to offer real time improvements. We can also discuss other less essential but important areas such as tidying up old user logins, old unused stocktakes and cleaning up your authority files such as keywords or courses and of course, maximising the success of your stocktake (covering how to plan and execute the perfect stocktake)!

For more information or to book a course please contact training@isoxford.com or 01865 401040.