In keeping with the theme of announcing new questions or changes to the annual public library survey, today will focus on what we call the virtual library visit. But first, the Dude must retract what has been previously written about the -1. While the -1 is code for “not collected” on your surveys when the data is submitted to IMLS/Census, a recent conversation with the Bibliostat people indicated that they prefer that you enter N/A if data is not collected. If the survey question is not coded to accept letters (only numbers), then enter a 0. They will then change the field to -1 when they compile the data. Sorry for the confusion.
OK, on to the virtual library visit. Some of the reasons for collecting library statistics from the annual public library survey include identifying trends and demonstrating the value of public libraries. The chart to the right shows the number of annual visits to Nebraska libraries from 2010 – 2014, and while it looks like there is a huge drop between FY2013 and FY2014, keep in mind that this is in millions, so the actual change isn’t really that drastic. But physical visits to Nebraska libraries
have been declining. The question then is what about people who use library services remotely or who are “virtual visitors”. One example might be the person who wants to read a book but doesn’t feel like driving all the way to the library. They might download an eBook. What about the guy who streams a video from Hoopla from his home with the help of his library card? These are examples of a library providing a service without the person ever visiting the physical space. Another example might be the person who browses the library catalog from home, places a hold on an item, and then picks the item up. Before the availability of the virtual library visit, this person would need to go to the physical library, search the catalog, and if the item was not available place the hold from the library for a later pick up. Score: 2 physical visits in the old day, 1 physical visit in the new day. But the new day is equalized if we count the person’s website visit as a “virtual visit”, which is the idea behind capturing this data.
Many states are already collecting this data. Our question definition is modeled after theirs. It seems that the most difficult question (where states differ) is whether or not to count virtual visits from within the library (e.g. staff and computer lab hits). Our question doesn’t specifically say to exclude them. Mostly, the reason for this is that from a technological standpoint, it may be much harder to exclude them, especially for smaller libraries with limited IT departments. For those Nebraska libraries that are hosted by the Commission, our comp. team intends to prefill this data for you. Again, if you don’t collect the data or an estimate is not available, feel free to enter N/A (not -1). Here is the definition as it will appear on the survey:
6.18. Total Annual Number of Virtual Visits to Library’s Website: Virtual visits is the number of inferred individual people as determined by IP address (filtered for spiders and robots), within the reporting timeframe, with activity consisting of one or more visits to the library’s website. The number of unique visitors to the library’s website may be calculated by summing the number of unique visitors for each month to obtain an annual figure. A visit ends when someone closes their browser or stops loading web pages on a website for a period of time (typically when more than 30 minutes elapses between page views).
Shaka.
In keeping with the theme of announcing new questions or changes to the annual public library survey, today will focus on what we call the virtual library visit. But first, the Dude must retract what has been previously written about the -1. While the -1 is code for “not collected” on your surveys when the data is submitted to IMLS/Census, a recent conversation with the Bibliostat people indicated that they prefer that you enter N/A if data is not collected. If the survey question is not coded to accept letters (only numbers), then enter a 0. They will then change the field to -1 when they compile the data. Sorry for the confusion.
OK, on to the virtual library visit. Some of the reasons for collecting library statistics from the annual public library survey include identifying trends and demonstrating the value of public libraries. The chart to the right shows the number of annual visits to Nebraska libraries from 2010 – 2014, and while it looks like there is a huge drop between FY2013 and FY2014, keep in mind that this is in millions, so the actual change isn’t really that drastic. But physical visits to Nebraska libraries have been declining. The question then is what about people who use library services remotely or who are “virtual visitors”. One example might be the person who wants to read a book but doesn’t feel like driving all the way to the library. They might download an eBook. What about the guy who streams a video from Hoopla from his home with the help of his library card? These are examples of a library providing a service without the person ever visiting the physical space. Another example might be the person who browses the library catalog from home, places a hold on an item, and then picks the item up. Before the availability of the virtual library visit, this person would need to go to the physical library, search the catalog, and if the item was not available place the hold from the library for a later pick up. Score: 2 physical visits in the old day, 1 physical visit in the new day. But the new day is equalized if we count the person’s website visit as a “virtual visit”, which is the idea behind capturing this data.
Many states are already collecting this data. Our question definition is modeled after theirs. It seems that the most difficult question (where states differ) is whether or not to count virtual visits from within the library (e.g. staff and computer lab hits). Our question doesn’t specifically say to exclude them. Mostly, the reason for this is that from a technological standpoint, it may be much harder to exclude them, especially for smaller libraries with limited IT departments. For those Nebraska libraries that are hosted by the Commission, our comp. team intends to prefill this data for you. Again, if you don’t collect the data or an estimate is not available, feel free to enter N/A (not -1). Here is the definition as it will appear on the survey:
6.18. Total Annual Number of Virtual Visits to Library’s Website: Virtual visits is the number of inferred individual people as determined by IP address (filtered for spiders and robots), within the reporting timeframe, with activity consisting of one or more visits to the library’s website. The number of unique visitors to the library’s website may be calculated by summing the number of unique visitors for each month to obtain an annual figure. A visit ends when someone closes their browser or stops loading web pages on a website for a period of time (typically when more than 30 minutes elapses between page views).
Shaka. 
What about folks who go through the website once and then bookmark the database page they are going to? They wouldn’t be counted each time they used the database, etc. since they would be bypassing our web page.
Yes, this is correct that it wouldn’t be counted as a virtual visit. However, there is also a new element that allows you to enter database use (now known as “electronic collections”).