Complete updates and supplied data are here!

WLS provides the following data and information to assist libraries in preparing NYS Annual Reports:

Member Library WLS Supplied Data

Bibliostat CollectConnect Annual Report Software

Please update your bookmarks to the URL above! Bibliostat CollectConnect is now compatible with major browsers including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer.

Email Allison Midgley (amidgley@wlsmail.org) if you have questions.

 

Monthly Statistics

Annual Report Workshops

2023 Annual Report Follow-up Workshop, April 30, 2024.

2023 Annual Report Workshop on February 20, 2024. View the Recording here. Use Passcode: ^QPR5*wW

FAQ

Q. When must a trustee’s oath of office be filed?

A. A public officer is required to file his or her oath of office within 30 days of commencing the term of office for which he or she is chosen, in the case of an elective office, or in the case of an appointive office, within thirty days after notice of his or her appointment or within 30 days after the commencement of such term. Public Officer’s Law §30(1)(h).

Q. Who can administer a trustees oath of office?

A. Public Officer’s Law §10 specifies a number of officials who are authorized to administer an oath of office. For a library or library system trustee, the oath can be administered by either the clerk of the county in which the trustee resides or the president of the public library’s board of trustees, provided the president has taken an oath of office. In addition, any judge of the court of appeals, the attorney general or any officer authorized to take the acknowledgement of the execution of a deed of real property in the state can administer an oath of office, such as a notary public.

Q. If a program had no attendees, does it still get counted as a program session? 

A. Yes

Q. I’ve been able to get into the CollectConnect site in the past, but today, after I enter my user ID and password, the “login” button is not active. Is there an outage do you know?

A. Please try to log in on another browser or try clearing your browser cache and see if that works. If it doesn’t, email Allison so that she can see if there have been reports from DLD about the overall system having any issues and also give BTOL a call at (866) 785-9935 for help.

Q. In 2023, we gave out Covid Tests kits to patrons as provided by the county(?). Can we/should we count on Annual Report? Patrons come in to pick up tests, two boxes per patron, so could they count as an adult program with attendance or one-on-one?

A. Though the COVID test kits are quite similar to Take & Make kits, they were provided by the County and aren’t considered a library-sponsored program, so you can’t count them in the NYS Annual Report. If you have counts of how many patrons picked them up and how many you gave out, that’s great information to share on the community level because it definitely shows that many Bedford residents see the library as a key resource.

Q. How do we count sessions that are presented live, and recorded and available for later viewing?

A. Enter these in 3.26a. Total Live Virtual Program Sessions

“A live virtual program session is any planned event that is streamed virtually and can be viewed live as it progresses (i.e., live-streaming)… Include virtual program sessions that are also recorded.”
For attendance,
  • enter live attendance in 3.24b Total Live Onsite Program Attendance” and/or 3.26b Total Live Virtual Program Attendance depending on whether the session was in person, hybrid, or only virtual
  • enter views of the recording in 3.30 Total Views of Prerecorded Programs within 30 Days because these are views of a program that was live and is now prerecorded
In 3.30, include views of the recording “for a period of thirty (30) days after the presentation was posted, even if that period extends beyond the survey reporting period (or fiscal year). For program presentations made available via Facebook, count unique 1–minute views of each video. For those made available via other platforms, count unique views of each video. For program presentations that are recordings of synchronous [live] virtual program sessions, exclude live attendance; these should be counted under 3.24b Total Live Onsite Program Attendance” and/or 3.26b Total Live Virtual Program Attendance.
If these set up edit checks because the numbers aren’t consistent with how you reported these last year, please add a note like, “Reported these as asynchronous is 2023.”

Q. In Part 6 Staff, how do I calculate FTEs?

A. Calculate the FTE for all positions funded in the library’s budget whether those positions are filled or not. This report requires conversion of part-time hours to full-time equivalents (FTE). The pre-entered numbers are those that were supplied last year. The count of staff is not the number of full-time staff.

To compute the FTE of employees in any category, take the total number of hours worked per week for all budgeted positions in that category and divide that total by the number of hours per week the library considers to be full-time. Report the FTE to two decimal places. For example,
Your library considers 35 hours Full-time.
First, list which of these categories are funded in your budget:
Director
Librarian
Manager
“Library Specialist/Paraprofessional”– anyone who has the title and would do the work of a librarian but doesn’t have a NYS certificate
Other Staff – anyone who doesn’t fit the previous categories.
Second, for each category, list the number of hours budgeted. For example:
Your budget pays for
a director to work 35 hours per week,
librarians to work 89 hours a week
librarian (vacant) to work 35 hours a week
paraprofessionals to work 42 hours per week
other staff to work 54 hours a week (which is 3 18-hour PT staff).
Third, divide each category by how many hours you consider FT (35). So,
director is FTE 1
librarian is 2.54
librarian (vacant) is 1
paraprofessionals is 1.20
other is 1.54
Finally, sum those to total FTEs  7.28
Q. How do we count notarizing documents? Reference, one-on-one?

A. Notarizing and other services that library staff perform are recorded in Q3.22 One on One Program SessionsCount library activities that are delivered on a one to one basis, rather than to a group, such as one to one literacy tutoring, services to homebound (such as delivering an item to someone’s home), homework assistance, and mentoring activities.

Scheduled computer assistance for an individual (whether scheduled with one person orset up as a walk-in time for computer assistance) may be counted as one session; if one walk-in time is scheduled and library staff meet with 5 individuals separately, it may be counted as 5 sessions with a total of 5 attendees.

Q3.29 One-on-One Program Attendance AND also reported by appropriate topic in one of
  • Q3.63 & Q3.65  – Adult Literacy
  • Q3.72 & Q3.77 – ESOL
  • Q3.81 & Q8.83 – Digital Literacy

NOTES

  • Computer assistance questions that arise during non-scheduled times should be counted as reference questions in Q4.19-Q4.20, regardless of how much time is spent with the individual.
  • One-to-one services that are not supported by library funding or staff time are not included in Q3.22-Q3.29. They may be included as library visits.

Q. We collected different answers for Materials Received and Provided Q4.21 & 4.22. Should we go with your numbers or ours? It is a significant difference.

A. Please use our numbers for Materials Received and Provided Q4.21 & 4.22. I spoke with Lindsay about the difference between the data dashboard circ numbers (which is where your numbers probably come from) and the annual report numbers. The data dashboard includes checkouts and renewals. The Annual Report asks for only the number of items received or supplied, so it doesn’t include renewals.

Q. How are museum passes reported?

A. Museum passes are reported in Q2.23 Other Circulating Physical Items, and Q4.10 (Q4.8 or Q4.9).

Q. How is microfilm reported?

A. Microfilm is

  • reported as an expenditure in Q12.8 Other Materials – “Record all operating expenditures for other materials, such as audio and video physical units, microform, audio, video, DVD, and materials in all other forms.”
  • not counted in Part 2 or Part 4 because it doesn’t circulate outside the library. Part 2 only includes circulating items, and Internal Library usage is not considered part of circulation.

Q. For Part 8 Covid-19, if we weren’t closed at all in 2022 and answer no to the first question, how do we answer the subsequent ones?

A. If the library was not closed due to Covid in 2022 and answered No to QCV1, they should continue to answer No to the follow up questions. Since they did not close due to Covid, the federal guidance is to answer No. Add N/A in the note field as well as the No responses in those questions about the impact of services due to Covid, because some of the remaining questions are not applicable.

Q. Why are 2022 numbers for Q4.13 Retrieval of Electronic Information lower than 2021?
A. 2022 numbers for Q4.13 Retrieval of Electronic Information are lower because we discontinued Press Reader, Learning Express Library, and Comics Plus use is part of Q4.12 since now we have individual library statistics.

Trustee Information and Education

DLD revised the Library and Library System Trustees Information on its website. This will be helpful for you and trustees.

For the 2023 Annual Report, the library must attest that all trustees participated in 2 hours of education (10.6).

WLS Holds Trustee Institute Workshops. Get information and register on the WLS Evanced Calendar.

The state has supplied the following resources to help libraries understand what’s required and collect needed data: