2.7. Public Library Survey Statistics for NC Cardinal

Last Updated 04/30/2025

This is the process NC Cardinal uses to generate Public Library Statistics each year for member libraries.

Registered Users

I.1. Adults
I.2. Juveniles

We run a query looking for accounts with the permission groups of (Adult, Adult Limited, Teen, Teen Limited, Juvenile, Juvenile Limited, School, State Employee, Institution, Outreach, Internet) We include any patrons that are active, not deleted and have expiration dates within the last three years. So, in July of 2024, our criteria was accounts with expiration dates greater than June 30, 2021.

We then translate those to the PLS categories using these mappings:

I.1. Adults (AD_BORR) = Adult, Adult Limited, Institution, Outreach, Internet, State Employee

I.2. Juveniles (JUV_BORR) = Teen, Teen Limited, Juvenile, Juvenile Limited

Student = School

Collection Counts

G.1. Cataloged Adult Fiction Books
G.4. Cataloged Adult Non-fiction Books
G.3. Cataloged Juvenile Fiction Books
G.6. Cataloged Juvenile Non-fiction Books
G.2. Cataloged Young Adult Fiction Books
G.5. Cataloged Young Adult Non-fiction Books
G.11. Other Print Materials
G.12. Current Print Serial Subscriptions
G.13. Audio - Physical Units
G.14. Video - Physical Units
G.15. Other non-print analog materials

We start with a count of non-deleted items grouped by their call number’s owning branch, their shelving location and their circulation modifier (circmod). We then translate them to PLS categories by first checking if their circmod has a mapping, if not, then we see what their shelving location mapping is and use that PLS category. So, for instance, BOOK circmids don’t have a PLS mapping, but all EQUIPMENT circmods are translated to ONP_MATS and all AUDIOBOOK circmods are mapped to the AUDIO_PH no matter what their shelving location is.

Circulation Counts

H.1. Adult Fiction Book Circulation
H.4. Adult Non-fiction Book Circulation
H.2. Young Adult Fiction Book Circulation
H.5. Young Adult Non-fiction Book Circulation
H.3. Juvenile Fiction Book Circulation
H.6. Juvenile Non-fiction Book Circulation
H.11. Print periodicals circulation
H.13. Analog audio circulation
H.14. Analog video circulation
H.15. Other print materials circulation
H.16. Other non-print materials circulation

Similar to Collection Counts, we start with a count of items checked out at a branch and include their shelving location and their circmod. We then translate them first by circmod if there’s a mapping, or then by shelving location. As with collection mapping, BOOK circmids don’t have a PLS mapping, but all EQUIPMENT circmods are translated to CIRC_OTH_NPRNT and all AUDIOBOOK circmods are mapped to the CIRC_AUD_AN no matter what their shelving location is.

Resource Sharing (ILLs)

K.5. Interlibrary Loans Provided To (LOANTO)
K.6. Interlibrary Loans Received From (LOANFM)

PLS ILL stats that we run are simply counts of materials lent between member libraries through resource sharing. Each transaction is counted for where it comes from and where it is headed to.

Summer Reading Stats

For summer Reading stats, we rerun the circulation statistics for June 1st through August 31st, run the mapping and only include the counts for things that map to the PLS categories of: CIRC_JUV_FIC, CIRC_JUV_NFIC, CIRC_YA_FIC, CIRC_YA_NFIC

Using the Reporter to Run Your Own PLS Stat Reports

We’ve created reports that allow you to generate counts that pull the same raw data I’m using for generating PLS stats. These reports can be found in the Reporter by going to: Shared Folders > Templates > admin > PLS Reports (CARDINAL)

These reports will generate counts using the same criteria the Cardinal team uses to run statistics each July.

This only generates the raw data, so in order to get the output in the PLS categories, you'd need to go through the same mapping process described above.

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