CHAPTER IV

THE MATERIAL OF THE ANNUAL REPORT. STATISTICS, WORKING RECORDS. FORM OF THE ANNUAL REPORT

=55. Statistical Methods.=--It seems desirable to describe here, as being concerned with committee work, the various statistical and other methods adopted to show the operations of the library. Every business concern of any consequence has what approximates to a statistical department, in which records are kept and analysed of every transaction of the business, and from these useful deductions are made. Such statistics, with the necessary proviso that the keeping of them should not impede more obvious work, are desirable for libraries, and although they are necessarily of a quantitative rather than qualitative character, they are nevertheless of value as showing the use made of the several departments and of the various classes of the stock. Statistics usually kept include: the stock; accessions; the issue of books and material in each department according to their classes; the number of readers’ tickets in force; and the attendances at the reading rooms. Sometimes records are kept of the occupations and ages of readers, and the wards from which they are drawn.

Hitherto all these statistics have been of doubtful comparative value, owing to the great divergence in the methods of computation adopted, and the methods of administering the library have a definite effect upon the resultant figures. For example, in the few libraries where so brief a time as a week is allowed for the reading of a volume, the issue figures will be higher than in those where a fortnight or more is allowed. Then, the amounts charged as fines for undue detention of books, ranging from 1d. a week or part of a week to 1d. a day beyond the time allowed, make a difference of some moment. Again, in some libraries it is usual to record the number of borrowers continuously, only counting off the lapsed tickets, while in others only those borrowers who are actually using the libraries within the year are counted. It would be well if an effort were made to standardize all these methods. A scheme for standardizing the form in which they are to be presented has been reached, and is described below (Section 62).

=56.= A satisfactory record of the relative circulation of books can be made only of a classified stock. Certainly comparisons cannot be fairly made while one librarian classes his periodicals as science, useful arts, etc., and another groups his together as miscellaneous. Then, some librarians, rightly we think, separate Juvenile Fiction issues from Adult Fiction issues; and, indeed, divergences and anomalies are frequent and are confusing.

Suggested rulings for Issue Record books, for lending and reference libraries respectively, are given on page 62.

The record book should have about thirty-five lines to the page, exclusive of the headings, to allow one line for each day and leave room for adding up the columns. The dates, 1 to 31, may be printed down each column, but this will mean leaving gaps for Sundays. It is better to write the dates in for each month, omitting Sundays, which may be entered on a separate page or pages. The issues of each year should be kept together in a series; and a page or more, as required, should be left for the necessary summaries, which can be entered up to show the total issues month by month in cumulative form. If this is done regularly the figures for the annual or other reports are quite easily obtained. The accessions book, if kept entered, added and classified up to date, will give similar information about books.

=57.= It is usual to count volumes separately. Thus a work in five volumes is counted as 5 in the record. Illustrations, pamphlets, broadsides and other material in separate form are usually counted in the same way, but are sometimes indicated as being of this separate character in separate columns. There are minor problems in counting which interest librarians, and upon which opinion is divided. Thus, when a series of prints are formed into a public exhibition, it is sometimes the practice to count each print as having been issued once. They may, however, have been examined by hundreds of people during the exhibition, and sometimes an allowance is made for that fact. Again, the consultation of a magazine in the reading rooms is usually not counted; but the same magazine when bound is counted if issued from the shelves in the reference library. Directories, time-tables, and similar quick-reference works are often omitted from the statistics. There seems no reason why all these uses of material should not be recorded, so long as the character of the use is made clear in the reports of the librarian. Otherwise the frequent complaint of librarians that their figures represent only part of their work seems to be justified; and it is well to remember that public criticism of libraries is in the main based upon their statistics. At the same time if the recording of statistics means the placing of barriers between books and readers, it is a safe principle to prefer fewer statistics and more accessibility.

1 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Month: September 1918. Lending Library Issues. | +-----++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+------+-------+------+------++----+-----+------+ | || | | | | | | | | | | Il- | Lan- |Blank |Blank ||To- | D. | Re- | | || | | | | | | | | | | lus- | tern | I. | II. ||tal.|Aver-|marks.| |Date.||0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9| tra- |Slides.|(Other|(Other|| |age. | | | || | | | | | | | | | |tions.| |Mate- |Mate- || | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | | |rial).|rial).|| | | | +-----++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+------+-------+------+------++----+-----+------+ | 1 || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | 2 || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | 3 || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | 4 || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | 5 || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | etc.|| | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | +-----++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+------+-------+------+------++----+-----+------+

2 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Month: Reference Library Issues. | +-----++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+------+-------+------+------++----+-----+------+ | || | | | | | | | | | | Il- | Lan- |Blank |Blank ||To- | D. | Re- | | || | | | | | | | | | | lus- | tern | I. | II. ||tal.|Aver-|marks.| |Date.||0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9| tra- |Slides.|(Other|(Other|| |age. | | | || | | | | | | | | | |tions.| |Mate- |Mate- || | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | | |rial).|rial).|| | | | +-----++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+------+-------+------+------++----+-----+------+ | 1 || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | 2 || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | 3 || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | 4 || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | 5 || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | etc.|| | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | +-----++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+------+-------+------+------++----+-----+------+

FIG. 4.--Suggested Rulings for Issue Record Books.

The record of the number of readers should be confined to those whose tickets are “live” ones. This does not mean necessarily that tickets not in active use at the time statistics are compiled should be regarded as “dead.” A borrower may leave his ticket in abeyance for several months with the intention of using it later. It does mean that only those tickets should be counted which are valid at the time. As we have seen, validity ranges from one to three or more years in different libraries, and the figures as a rule will be only approximately sound. If, however, all valid tickets are included, and if the number of tickets issued within the year covered by the annual report is also indicated, the record will be a serviceable account of the use made in relation to the population of the district served. It is usual to show the number of actual borrowers divided into burgesses and non-burgesses; of non-resident borrowers (employees, scholars, etc.); and of supplementary tickets (non-fiction, teachers’, illustration, music, etc.) held by them.

=58.= Where it is thought necessary to keep records of the occupations of readers, a blank line for the name of the occupation is included on the application voucher (see Section 368) from which the records are made.

=59.= It is not usual to keep formal statistics of the number of visitors to newspaper and periodical rooms; the attendances are either not recorded or are estimated. In some cases, however, a daily count is made at monthly or other intervals and the yearly attendance is gauged from this. It is obvious that such figures have no great value. A series of visits to the rooms will assure any librarian or member of committee of the amount of use that is made of them equally well.

=60.= Brief paragraphs, presenting the record of work weekly or monthly, and the number of borrowers, are sometimes sent to the local newspapers. This is a good plan, and the matter is more acceptable if presented in literary rather than in merely tabular form. At each meeting of the library committee a fairly complete statistical record of the work since the last meeting is presented, in which the factors we have discussed, together with the percentage of fiction issued, and comparisons with the corresponding weeks or months of the previous year, are made. The committee is thus kept closely acquainted with the results of its work.

=61. The Annual Report.=--The annual report of the library committee is the summary and crown of its labours, and is often the most direct means of contact between the committee and the community. Such reports deserve more attention than is commonly given to them by librarians, and in this matter the American librarian--who is essentially a business man and does not often produce useless documents--may give hints to his British brethren. A report should be a complete history of the operations of the library in all its departments; and if improvement is necessary it is in the direction of reducing the mere statistical and in increasing the literary matter to be included. Elaborate tables of issue, stock, etc., of central and branch libraries have a use for the librarian and may be kept at the libraries, but their publication is of interest to few other people, and they are better given in summary. Plain and clear reports, in which comparisons with other libraries by name should be avoided, and which present the salient statistics without the use of confusingly elaborate tables, give the best results. Illustrations and an occasional diagram rendering in graphic form the statistical results of work are not necessarily superfluous, and may brighten the report considerably. The report will not be a less authoritative document if it is attractive. The information which a library report ought to convey may be indicated briefly as follows:

Title-page.

List of members of committee and library staff.

Narrative report.

[This is the most interesting feature from the public point of view. It is usually a review of the year founded upon the statistics, etc., in the appendix, and is properly presented as if written by the committee and signed by the chairman. Frequently, however, it takes the form of a report written by the librarian to the committee, to be adopted as the committee’s report. Each method has advantages. The committee can appeal to the council upon any part of its policy with greater authority than the librarian. On the other hand, the librarian can express views of the work and needs of the library from his own standpoint. The character of the document, however, would seem to require that a report should be the committee’s. Sometimes, as usually in America, the question is solved by having a brief report from the committee, followed by a longer one from the librarian.]

Appendix of documents:--The following forms may be used conveniently to present the statistical record:--

STOCK

Central. Branches. Total. Grand Total. Class. Refer- Lend- Refer- Lend- Refer- Lend- Report Last ence. ing. ence. ing. ence. ing. Year. Year. 0 000 000 000 000 000 000 0000 0000 1 2 3 etc. Total

Number of volumes added during the year, with proportions purchased and donated. Grand total purchased . . . . . . Do. donated . . . . . . . . Number of volumes worn-out and withdrawn. Other particulars in brief paragraph form.

ISSUES

Central. Branches. Total. Grand Total. Class. Refer- Lend- Refer- Lend- Refer- Lend- Report Last ence. ing. ence. ing. ence. ing. Year. Year. 0 000 000 000 000 000 000 0000 0000 0 1 2 3 etc. Total Averages

Columns for juvenile and other departments, if they exist, must, of course, be included.

BORROWERS

Total number report year and last year. Number holding extra or students’ tickets.

READING ROOMS

Attendances at newsrooms, magazine rooms, etc.

List of donations.

Lists of periodicals and annuals (only if no other means of revising printed list is available).

Financial statement. (_See_ Section 50.)

Memoranda relating to district, showing population, area, valuation, date when Acts adopted, date of opening building, other leading facts.

=62. Library Association Summary.=--The appendix outlined above may be reduced considerably by substituting for most of the items a summary in the form recommended by the Library Association. The financial statement, however, should always be given in full, even by libraries the accounts of which are kept by the municipal treasurer or accountant. It is clearly impossible to gauge the character of any library’s work if the distribution of expenditure in performing it is not shown. The summary recommended by the Library Association resembles a summary used in American library reports, and is the outcome of a suggestion made to a meeting of the North Central Library Association in 1916 by Mr E. L. Hetherington, then Secretary of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust. Its purpose is not only to present the statistics of libraries in a succinct and simple manner, but by its general adoption to secure a uniform record from all libraries by which satisfactory comparisons may be made. No library report should appear without this summary, even if the librarian chooses to retain his more elaborate tables; and, in view of its utility and the proposed generalness of its use, we append it in full with the Library Association’s explanatory notes.

GENERAL STATISTICS:

(i) Population as at last Census. (ii) Amount of rate in the pound. (iii) Cost of Library Service per inhabitant. (iv) Total Cost of Library per inhabitant. (v) Number of Separate Establishments. (vi) Number of Staff--Librarians and Assistants. (_a_) Whole Time--Male. (_b_) Whole Time--Female. (_c_) Part Time--Male. (_d_) Part Time--Female. (_e_) Total--Male--Female.

INCOME AND EXPENDITURE:

_Income._ +-----------+----------+ |£ _s._ _d._|% of Total| | | Income. | +-----------+----------+ (i) From rate | | | (ii) From other sources | | | (iii) Total income | | | +-----------+----------+ |£ _s._ _d._|% of Total| | | Expendi- | | | ture. | +-----------+----------+ { (i) Books | | | { (ii) Binding and Repairing | | | { (iii) Printing of Catalogues | | | { (iv) Newspapers and Periodicals | | | _Library_ { not permanently retained | | | _Service_ { (v) Library Fittings and | | | _Expendi-_{ Furniture | | | _ture_ { (vi) Printing, Stationery, Office| | | { Requisites | | | { (vii) Salaries of Librarians and | | | { Assistants | | | {(viii) Total | | | +-----------+----------+ |£ _s._ _d._|% of Total| | | Income. | +-----------+----------+ { (ix) Rents and Loans | | | { (x) Rates and Taxes | | | { (xi) Upkeep of Buildings | | | _Fabric_ { (xii) Heating, Lighting and | | | _Charges_ { Cleaning, including wages | | | {(xiii) Total | | | { (xiv) Total Expenditure | | |

_Stocks._ 1 2 _Lending._ | _Reference._ -----------+----------- (i) Number of volumes at beginning of | year | (ii) Volumes withdrawn during year | (iii) Additions during year | (iv) Total volumes at end of year | (v) Number of replacements during year | (vi) Volumes per head of population | according to last Census |

_Issues._ _Total._ | _Daily_ | _Average._ -----------+----------- (i) Lending Library Issues | (ii) Children’s Reading Room Issues | (iii) Reference Library Recorded Issues | (iv) Reference Library Open Shelves | (estimated) | (v) Issues from Lending Library (see (i) | above) per head of population | according to last census |

_Borrowers._

(i) Percentage of Borrowers to population. (ii) Number of Supplementary Readers’ Tickets held. (iii) Total Borrowers’ Tickets in use.

INSTRUCTIONS TO BE STUDIED IN PREPARATION OF THE FIGURES DETAILED ABOVE

_General._

1. Asterisks with relative foot-notes should be placed against any figure which includes abnormalities; for example, if any item of the expenditure includes certain special or non-recurring charges, the amount of that expenditure should be detailed in a foot-note with an explanation of the item.

_General Statistics._

2. Head (iii) should express in pence the cost of the total library service--per inhabitant according to last census.

3. Similarly head (iv) should express the cost of the total library expenditure per inhabitant.

4. Head (v) asks for the number of separate establishments. The figure should include the central library, but if delivery stations are also included the number of such subsidiary establishments should be stated in a footnote.

_Income._

5. Head (i) should be confined solely to the income from the library rate.

6. Head (ii) should include income from all other sources, whether from interest on investments, rents, sales of catalogues, fines or special subscriptions or donations.

_Expenditure._

7. Under head (iv) should be included only the cost of periodicals not permanently retained. In cases of periodicals which are subsequently bound and added to the permanent library stocks, their cost should be included under head (i) books and head (ii) binding.

8. Care should be taken that head (vii) should be confined to the salary payments made to the library staff proper. All wages paid to caretakers, cleaners, messengers and the like, should be included under head (xii).

9. It will be observed that there is no separate heading for “miscellaneous” or “other items.” It is desired that all items of expenditure should be allocated to the headings detailed above.

_Stocks._

10. It is recognized that the word book or volume has no definite technical meaning, and is usually an indeterminate expression useful for popular purposes.

It may therefore be useful to make the following definitions for the guidance of the Libraries:--

_Volumes_ mean books as they stand on the shelves.

_Pieces_ mean separate works or parts (each usually having a separate title-page to itself, as with pamphlets, parts of periodicals, and the like).

_Papers_ mean lesser items, usually with less than 5 pages, as broadsides, cards, fly-sheets.

_Items_ mean volumes, pieces and papers.

_Works_ mean whole literary productions whether in several volumes or only one piece.

Thus: Ten pamphlets bound together, with five broadsides at end, are one volume, ten works or pieces, fifteen items. A dictionary in twenty volumes would count as twenty volumes, pieces and items, but one work, and in a sense one book.

Having regard to these definitions care should be taken, in recording the number of volumes in a library, to reckon ten pamphlets or parts as the equivalent of a single volume.

_Issues._

11. Head (iii) should give the issues from the reference library actually recorded.

12. Head (iv) should give the estimated use made of the books from the open shelves of the reference library.

13. Sunday use of libraries should be separately recorded.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

=63. Statistics:=

Hetherington, A. L. Library Statistics. _In_ L.A. Record, v. 19, p. 3, 1917. [Also separately.]

For articles, see Cannons, E 135, Library Statistics.

=64. Annual Report:=

Bostwick, A. E. Administration of a Public Library. _In_ A.L.A., Man. of Lib. Econ. Preprint of chapter xii., 1911.

For articles, see Cannons, E 136, Annual Report.

DIVISION III

STAFF