ACRL, IPEDS, and National Surveys

For physical circulation data, use the Standard Monthly Circulation Statistics report (see below), or the template in the PALNI Toolkit ("OCLC Monthly Circulation Statistics Report") which has been modified for ease of use. The instructions below provide guidance for setting date range prompts and user/shelving location input controls.

Setup notes: in order to retrieve your statistics most easily, you need to set up WMS correctly.

• Put your equipment and computers in unique shelving locations

If you create transactions in the circulation system to reflect ILL activity

• Use a different borrower category for the “patrons” in outgoing ILL transactions
• Use a different shelving location for “items” in incoming ILL transactions

The instructions here ask you to include:

• physical checkouts from book and serials collections
• circulation of electronic reading devices (e.g. Kindles) if preloaded with e-books
• circulation of physical media such as DVDs, VHS, CDs
• include reserves for books, serials, and media

and exclude:

• interlibrary lending and borrowing (including PALShare transactions)
• equipment or computers

For PALShare Lending

Two toolkit templates are available for PALShare Lending. 

• OCLC Circulation Events Detail Report for PALShare Lending: Item-by-item loan events in PALShare
• PALNI Circulation Events Measure for PALShare Lending: Total quantities of loans by local PALShare lending policy name

Go to WMS Analytics > Reports > Reports > Circulation Reports. Open the Monthly Circulation Statistics Report.

The default date setting for this report is a 12-month filter from the date on which you are opening the report. To reset the date prompts, clear “12 Months Ago” and “Beginning of this month” by clicking the left arrow button. Then, input the Begin Date of your fiscal year, and hit enter, and the End Date of your fiscal year, and hit enter, and then click OK. Your report will generate.

When Prompts summary looks like this, then click OK:

When the report has run, refine the Report Input Controls in the menu on the left-hand side. You can select more than one option in each input by holding down the Ctrl key. Press OK in each of the input controls boxes when your selection is finished. This will change the data in your report.

Report Input Controls

• Report: By Borrower Category
• Level of Detail: Year
• Circulation Event Branch Name: Select the primary branch(es) of your library
• Circulation Event Borrower Category: Select your local borrower types except those that are for interlibrary loan transactions
• Item Permanent Shelving Location: Make sure you do not include equipment/computers or interlibrary loan in the shelving locations you select

Look for the Grand Total in the “Items Checked Out” column. Report this number to ACRL and IPEDS.