The LibraryWorld Reports application provides valuable information on the status of your library's circulation records, patron records, and a host of other information. There are over two dozen reports available to users, so getting to know the ins and outs of our comprehensive reporting structure takes time and a bit of finesse. While we are constantly striving to increase the plasticity of these reports, understanding common challenges and basic navigation pathways can increase your efficiency and the accuracy of your reporting. LibraryWorld's Director of Customer Service, Susan Angley, knows these reports in and out and has contributed the following Tips and Frequently Asked Questions for your reference.
TIP: Have you tried running the Library Status Report?
This is a great report that gives you a snapshot of your library. It provides separate counts of catalog vs. holding records, a collection valuation amount based on the prices in your holding records and counts of holding records by status(IN, OUT, etc). If you are using the Location and Collection fields in the holding records you will also see counts of holdings by location and collection. The report also includes a count of patron records by patron type. Lots of good information on one page!
Top 2 Frequently Asked Questions
How do I designate which records I want to include on a report?
If you don’t want to include all of the catalog or patron records on a report you must create a “find set” first. A find set is simply the set of records that are the result of your last search. You must create the find set before you go to the Reports page and select the report. After the selecting the report you want, the next page will offer 3 options:
All Records means include all of the records on the report.
Find Set Only means include only those records for which I searched on the Catalog or Patrons page.
None – Return to Reports Page means don’t run the report. Return to the previous page.
How do I manipulate a report outside of LibraryWorld?
You can easily manipulate a completed LibraryWorld report by doing a copy/paste into a spreadsheet program like MS Excel. Here are the step-by-step instructions:
1. After the entire report is displayed to the screen, copy the ENTIRE contents of the page – including the title of the report. If you don’t include the title when copying, it will not paste correctly.
2. Paste the contents of the report into an empty spreadsheet. As long as you included the title of the report when copying, the data will go into separate columns as expected.
3. Now you can manipulate the data any way you want.
