Statistics are a powerful tool you can use to inform decisions concerning your library. In Alexandria, there are two kinds of usage statistics: Monthly Usage and Circulation.

Monthly Usage Statistics

For the three main record types (Patrons, Titles, and Copies), Alexandria keeps record-specific monthly usage counts for each year. These are incremented whenever a checkout occurs; there are no monthly usage counts for holds, reservations, or other circulation events. These are simple counters that can be used to show the number of times a record was used and by totaling these counters for a group of similar records you can obtain the overall usage for that group. This data can be useful in answering basic checkout usage questions and for identifying the total number of checkouts for a record or group of similar records. Weeding, Most Checked Out (Popular) Title, Top Borrowing Patron, are some examples of this. 

Here are some examples of information you can get from Monthly Usage Statistics:

• Darla Anderson has checked out 37 items this year.
• Patrons in 4th grade (grade selection) checked out 476 items in June.
• Copy 1000 has been used 137 times and is getting old.
• The Lightning Thief is a very popular title; it has been checked out more than any other in the collection.
• The items on the Teacher Resources shelf (shelving selection) have been checked out only 7 times, and all were in January.

If 'Randy' checks out 'Copy 1000' of 'The Book' in June 2020 then the June counter in the 2020 record for each of these is incremented by '1'. With this it is possible to see what the monthly usage is for each of these records and it is also possible to add up all of the counts to see yearly or lifetime usage. Additionally, you could select by groups of similar records to obtain monthly, yearly, or lifetime totals for the group. That is the extent of it though because these do not include what time of day the usage occurred or any information on the relationship between records. i.e. We know 'Randy' was used once, 'The Book' was used once, and 'Copy 1000' was used once, but there is no information available to show that it was 'Randy' who used 'Copy 1000' or that the checkout occurred at 10:00 AM. 

Circulation Statistics

These data are not well suited for analysis on library usage patterns or the interactions between various types of records. Circulation statistics are best for that. Circulation statistics are completely separate from monthly usage and the patron / title / copy records that contribute to them. These data go beyond the monthly checkout usage count and further include events like checkout, checkin, hold placed, reservation placed, etc., and with hourly granularity. A Circulation Statistics record is kept for every unique combination of Date, Hour, Patron Policy, Item Policy, Patron Site, and Copy Site but they are not linked in any way to the individual records that contribute to them, as monthly usage statistics are. Circulation Statistics are meant to be used for date, time, policy, and site analysis of circulation events.

With these you can examine library usage patterns and the interactions between different types of patrons and items. For example, circulation statistics could show that middle school patrons check out more biographies than other groups, or that staff place more reservations, or that 10:00 ~ 11:00 is the busiest time of day, but, being separate from the contributing records, they can not be used to show that Randy placed 6 reservations, or that 4th graders (by grade) had the most holds. Name, grade, title, author, call number, genre, barcode, location, 2nd location, etc. are properties of the patron / title / copy records and therefore you can not base a circulation statistics report on them because those are completely separate records which do not include that kind of information. Selections for circulation statistics are done by date, site, or policy statistic group.

Here are some examples of information you can get from Circulation Statistics:

• 11:00 AM is the busiest hour of the day.

• Mondays are the busiest day of the week.

• Patrons in 4th grade check out more fiction than biographies.

• Patrons in 8th grade use the library more than the 9th graders do.

• The most popular non-fiction area for those in 11th grade at my site is the 500's.

• Patrons in 12th grade never check out anything in the 200's.

• Jefferson Elementary School borrows the most from others in the district.

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Circulation Statistics Reports

Usage Statistics Reports