Assessment: Proving the Library’s Value with Serials Solutions Intota™

Our recent survey emphasized something that all of us already know—reporting and statistics are a major shortcoming of current ILS systems.   As library resources are increasingly electronic, circulation activity is no longer a good barometer of the value the library delivers.

Proving the library’s relevance is of critical importance to libraries today.  Libraries need an accurate picture of how collections are accessed —not borrowed.  And they need a complete picture of all of the activities across all of the collections.  Here’s how respondents expressed their frustrations with current reporting. How many of these remarks ring true for you?

Many of the libraries surveyed said that generating reports was complex or expensive. Some said the reporting capability was substandard, while others said it was non-existent.

Here are some of the ways they expressed their frustration:

• “Report writing, and extracting data for analysis is not as flexible as I would like“
• “Too complicated … we have to know SQL and Access to run reports”
• “Lack of reporting and statistics”
• “Reporting capability is weak”
• “We would like scheduled reports, improved statistics and decision-making capability”
• “Lack of ability for non-IT staff to make changes to settings or reports”

Solving the reporting problem is big point of emphasis in Serials Solutions Intota.  In fact, Intota goes beyond reporting to true assessment of collection usage.  Because Intota uses a software-as-a-service model, libraries have access to the most-often-needed reports without having to design them on their own. Building Intota on open standards also simplifies the creation of specialized or custom reports, by allowing the use of standard, widely available tools.

This robust assessment capability illuminates how collections are being used and how the library contributes to student success. It showcases and proves the true value of the library.  In Intota assessment is a constant.  From online reporting on database usage to easily combined fund activities, Intota creates and reveals metrics across the collections.

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