Create Online Forms to Collect Library Statistics

Our colleagues at the North Dakota State Library recently published a How-To guide on their blog, Field Notes, about using Google Docs to create online data collection forms. The two-part guide instructs librarians on how to design forms to tally statistics like library visits or reference transactions and then describes how to create reports for analysis and charts for data visualization. I was quite impressed by this tutorial and thought that many libraries in Nebraska would be able to use this technique to keep track of usage data, especially those activities that are not collected by an automated library system. And, once these statistics are collected and compiled into reports, think how easy it would be to complete the annual Public Libraries Survey!