General Instructions for ALS

Instructions for the Academic Library Survey – FY 2012

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

Please respond to each item in this survey. If the appropriate answer for an item is zero or none, use "0." If you do not collect data for an item, provide your best estimate. PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE ITEMS BLANK. If an item is left blank, NCES will estimate a value using the average for institutions with similar characteristics. Include data for the main or central library and all branch and independent libraries that were open all or part of fiscal year 2010.

LIBRARY - An entity that provides all of the following:

1. Total library expenditures exceed $10,000.

2. An organized collection of printed or other materials or a combination thereof; and

3. A paid, trained library staff to provide and interpret library materials to meet the informational, cultural, recreational, or educational needs of clientele; and

4. An established hours of operation during which paid, trained staff are available to meet the informational service needs of clientele; and

5. The physical facilities necessary to support such a collection, staff, and schedule.

This includes libraries that are part of learning resource centers.

Number of Public Service Outlets, Fiscal Year 2012

Branch and independent libraries (item 100) - Report the number of branch and independent libraries at your institution that were open all or part of fiscal year 2012. EXCLUDE THE MAIN OR CENTRAL LIBRARY. Branch and independent libraries are defined as auxiliary library service outlets with quarters separate from the central library of an institution, which have a basic collection of books and other materials, a regular staffing level, and an established schedule.

Branch and independent libraries are administered either by the central library or, as in the case of some libraries (such as law, medical, etc.), through the administrative structure of other units within the university. Departmental study/reading rooms are not included. Include data for all branch and independent libraries on the campus. Include libraries on branch campuses (i.e., located in another community) if those campuses are registered under the same NCES UNITID number as the main campus.

Library Staff, Fall 2012 and Salaries/Wages, FY 2012

Column (1), Full-time equivalent (FTE) employees (items 200-205) - Report the number of filled or temporarily vacant FTE positions during Fall 2012. To compute FTEs for part-time employees and student assistants, take the TOTAL number of hours worked per week by part-time employees and divide it by the number of hours in the library’s full-time work week (e.g., 60 hours per week of part-time work divided by 40 hours per full-time week equals 1.50 FTE). Data should be reported to two decimal places.

Exclude maintenance and custodial staff, volunteers, and contributed services staff, such as members of religious orders, whose services are valued by bookkeeping entries rather than by full cash transactions.

Column (2), Salaries and wages (items 202-205) - Report expenditures in FY 2010 for full-time and part-time salaries and wages before deductions. Exclude employee fringe benefits provided by your institution for all regular library staff that may be reported in item 207.

Librarians (item 200) - Report the total FTE of staff whose duties require professional education (the master's degree or its equivalent) in the theoretical and scientific aspects of librarianship.

Other professional staff (item 201) - Report the total FTE of staff whose duties require education and/or training in related fields (e.g., academic disciplines, archives, media, computing).

Total librarians and other professional staff (item 202) - Report the sum of items 200 and 201, column 1.

All other paid staff (except student assistants) (item 203) - Report the total FTE of all other library staff, including technical and clerical staff who are paid annual salaries or hourly wages.

Student assistants from all funding sources (item 204) - Report the total FTE of student assistants, employed on an hourly basis. Include salaries and wages from all sources (e.g., College Work Study Program). If not available leave line blank.

Total FTE staff (item 205) - Report the sum of items 202 through 204, columns 1 and 2.

Employee fringe benefits (item 206) — If benefits are paid from the library budget, select "Y" and report the amount in item 207. If benefits are not paid from the library budget, select "N" and skip to item 300.

Benefits (item 207) - If benefits are paid from the library budget, report the amount here.

Library Expenditures, Fiscal Year 2012

Total salaries and wages (item 205) - This line will automatically be filled in from the total Salaries and Wages Expenditures from the previous section.

Expenditures on information resources and operations (items 300-311) - Report funds expended by the library in fiscal year 2012 (regardless of when received) from its regular budget and from all other sources; e.g., research grants, special projects, gifts and endowments, and fees for services. If items in this section are not paid from the library budget but can be easily identified in other parts of the institution's budget, report them here. Expenditures should be reported for the 12-month period that corresponds to your library's fiscal year between the calendar period June 1, 2011 to September 30, 2012. All expenditures should be reported in whole dollars in the most appropriate category to provide an unduplicated count of expenditures. Exclude expenditures for new buildings and building renovation.

Information resources (items 300-307) -

Books, serial backfiles, and other materials (one time purchases) (item 300) - Report expenditures for published materials in all formats except current subscriptions to serials.

Electronic (item 301) - Report expenditures that are not current subscriptions to serials (i.e. are non-subscription, one-time, or monographic in nature) for software and machine-readable materials considered part of the collections. Examples include serial backfiles, literature collections, and one-time costs for electronic backfiles, etc. These expenditures have already been reported as part of item 300 above. Therefore, item 301 is not added into Total Expenditures (item 311).

Audiovisual (item 302) - Report expenditures for all library materials that are displayed by visual projection or magnification or through sound reproduction, or both, including graphic materials, audio materials, motion pictures, video materials, and special visual materials such as three-dimensional materials. These expenditures have already been reported as part of item 300 above. Therefore, item 302 is not added into Total Expenditures (item 311).

Current serial subscriptions (ongoing commitments) (item 303) - Report expenditures for ongoing subscriptions to serials in all formats. These are publications issued in successive parts, usually at regular intervals, and, as a rule, intended to be continued indefinitely. Serials include periodicals, newspapers, annuals (reports, yearbooks, etc.), memoirs, proceedings, and transactions of societies.

Electronic serials (item 304) – Report subscription expenditures (or those which are expected to be ongoing commitments) for serial publications whose primary format is electronic. Examples include paid subscriptions for electronic journals and indexes/abstracts available via the Internet, CD-ROM serials, and annual access fees. These expenditures have already been reported as part of item 303. Therefore, item 304 is not added into Total Expenditures (item 311).

Other Information Resources (items 305-307) -

Document delivery/interlibrary loan (item 305) - Report expenditures for document delivery and interlibrary loan services. Include fees paid for photocopies, costs of facsimile transmission, royalties and access fees paid to provide document delivery or interlibrary loan. Include fees paid to bibliographic utilities if the portion paid for interlibrary loan can be separately counted. Do not count expenditures related to transactions between the main or central library and branches reported in item 100, transactions between branches (item 100), or expenditures for on campus delivery.

Preservation (item 306) - Report expenditures associated with maintaining library and archival materials for use either in their original physical form or in some other usable way. This includes but is not limited to binding and rebinding, materials conservation, deacidification, lamination, and restoration. Also, include preservation-related contracts for services (e.g. digitization). Do not include staff salaries and wages.

Other expenditures for information resources (item 307) - Report any other collection expenditures not already included in items 300, 303, 305, and 306, such as expenditures for cartographic materials and manuscripts. Include copyright fees and fees for database searches, e.g. (DIALOG, Lexis-Nexis).

Operating Expenditures (items 308-310) -

Computer hardware and software (item 308) - Report expenditures from the library budget for computer hardware and software used to support library operations, whether purchased or leased, local or remote. Include expenditures for maintenance. Include the expenditure for equipment used to run information service products when that expenditure can be separated from the price of the product. Exclude expenditures reported in item 304.

Bibliographic utilities, networks, and consortia (item 309) - Report expenditures from the library operating budget for services provided by national, regional, and local bibliographic utilities, networks, and consortia. Exclude expenditures already reported on items 301, 304, and 305.

All other operating expenditures (item 310) - Report all other expenditures from the library budget not already reported in items 205 through 309 except employee fringe benefits that are reported in item 207. Exclude expenditures for new buildings and building renovations. Include all expenditures for furniture and equipment except computer hardware, which should be reported in item 308. Include any related maintenance costs.

Total Expenditures (item 311) - Report the sum of items 205, 300, 303, 305 through 310.

Library Collections, Fiscal Year 2012

NOTE - This section of the survey collects data on selected types of material. It does not cover all materials.

Column (1), Total number added during fiscal year - Report the gross number of each category added during FY 2012. Do not subtract the number withdrawn.

Column (2), Total number held at end of fiscal year - Report the total number of each category held at end of FY 2012. To get this figure, take the total number held at the end of FY 2011, add the number added during FY 2012, and subtract the number withdrawn FY 2012.

Books, serial backfiles and other paper materials (include government documents) (item 400) - Report the number of volumes using the ANSI/NISO Z39.7-1995 definition for volume, which is as follows: A single physical unit of any printed, typewritten, handwritten, mimeographed, or processed work, distinguished from other units by a separate binding, encasement, portfolio, or other clear distinction, which has been cataloged, classified, and made ready for use, and which is typically the unit used to charge circulation transactions. Include print photographs, duplicates and bound volumes of periodicals. For purposes of this questionnaire, unclassified bound serials arranged in alphabetical order are considered classified. Exclude microfilms, maps, nonprint materials, and uncataloged items. Include Government document volumes that are accessible through the library's catalogs regardless of whether they are separately shelved. "Classified" includes documents arranged by Superintendent of Documents, CODOC, or similar numbers. "Cataloged" includes documents for which records are provided by the library or downloaded from other sources into the library's card or online catalogs.

E-Books (item 401) - Report the number of electronic monographs that have been cataloged by your library and are accessible through the library's catalog.

Microforms (item 402) - Report units of all photographic reproduction of textual, tabular, or graphic materials reduced in size so that they can be used only with magnification. Examples of microforms are roll microfilm, microcard, microfiche, and ultrafiche.

Audiovisual Materials (item 403) - Report units of all library materials that are displayed by visual projection or magnification or through sound reproduction, or both, including graphic materials, audio materials (include audio books), motion pictures, video materials, and special visual materials such as three-dimensional materials.

Library Services, Fiscal Year 2012

Interlibrary loans and documents (items 500-506) – In items 500 and 501, report the number of filled requests for material provided to other libraries. In items 503 and 504, report the number of filled requests for material received from other libraries. Do not include transactions between the main or central library and branches reported in item 100, or transactions between branches (item 100).

Returnables (item 500 and 503) - Report materials that the library expects to have returned. Examples of returnables include books, dissertations and theses, microfilm reels, sound recordings, and audiovisual material.

Non-returnables (item 501 and 504) - Report materials that the library does not expect to have returned. Examples of non-returnables include photocopies or facsimiles, fiche-to-fiche copies, print copies from microfilm, electronic full-text documents, and gratis print copies of unpublished reports and/or departmental working papers.

Documents delivered from commercial services (item 505) - Report the number of documents from commercial document delivery services received by your users. Count all transactions for which the library pays even if library staff is not involved in the transaction. Include documents received by regular or express mail, by fax, or in electronic form.

Total loans (items 502 and 506) - Sum items 500 and 501 for item 502, and sum items 503, 504, and 505 for item 506.

General circulation transactions (item 507) - Report the number of items lent from the general collection. Include both initial transactions and renewals.

Reserve circulation transactions (item 508) – Report reserve transactions of all types. Include both initial transactions and renewals.

Information services to groups (items 509 and 510) - Report the total number of presentations (item 509) and the total number of persons attending or served by those presentations (item 510). Information services to groups are presentations at which a staff member or person invited by a staff member provides information intended for a number of persons and planned in advance. These services may be either bibliographic instruction or library use presentations, or cultural, recreational, or educational presentations. Presentations both on and off the library premises should be included, as long as they are sponsored by the library. Self-paced tutorials and staff training should be excluded, as well as meetings sponsored by other groups using library meeting rooms. Include web-based presentations.

Information services to individuals (items 511 – 516) – Reference and consultation interactions are information contacts that involve the knowledge, use, recommendation, interpretation, or instruction in the use of one or more information sources by a member of the library staff. Information sources include printed and non-printed materials, machine-readable databases (including assistance with computer searching), the Web, catalogs and other holdings records, and, through communication or referral, other libraries and institutions, and persons both inside and outside the library.

Reference interactions may be in person, by phone, by e-mail, by the Web, and may take place at the reference desk or elsewhere and take less than 20 minutes to complete. Include information and referral services. Consultation interactions typically occur in person and take longer than 20 minutes to complete.

If a contact includes both reference and directional services, it should be reported as one reference transaction. When a staff member utilizes information gained from a previous use of information sources to answer a question, report as a reference transaction, even if the source is not consulted again during this transaction.

Do not report directional transactions here. A directional transaction is an information contact which facilitates the use of the library in which the contact occurs and which does NOT involve the knowledge, use, recommendation, interpretation, or instruction in the use of any information sources other than those which describe the library; such as schedules, floor plans, handbooks, and policy statements. Examples of directional transactions include giving instruction in locating, within the library, staff, library users, or physical features, etc., and giving assistance of a nonbibliographic nature with machines.

This is a yearly figure of the reference transactions per typical week (item 602) that was reported in collections before 2012.

Library Services - Typical Week, Fall 2012

Collect data during a typical week in the fall. A typical week is one that is neither unusually busy nor unusually slow. Avoid vacation periods for key staff or days when unusual events are taking place on the campus or in the library. Choose a week in which the library is open its regular hours. Include any seven consecutive calendar days. If waiting for a typical week in the Fall 2012 will delay this form, please use typical week data from the preceding fiscal year. If you have data for the entire year, divide by the number of weeks that the library was open.

Number of weekly public service hours (item 600) – Report an unduplicated count of the total public service hours for physical libraries per typical full-service week (i.e., no holidays or other special accommodations) across both main library and branches using the following method (corresponds to IPEDS): If a library is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, it should report 40 hours per week. If several of its branches are also open during these hours, the figure remains 40 hours per week. Should Branch A also be open one evening from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., the total hours during which users can find service somewhere within the system becomes 42 hours per week. If Branch B is open the same hours on the same evening, the count is still 42, but if Branch B is open two hours on another evening, or remains open two hours later, the total is then 44 hours per week. Exclude 24-hour unstaffed reserve or similar reading rooms. The maximum total is 168 (i.e., a staffed reading room open 7 days per week, 24 hours per day).

Gate count in a typical week (item 601) - Report the number of persons who physically enter library facilities in a typical week. It is understood that a single person may be counted more than once. If the library is virtual or entirely electronic, please leave the line blank.

Electronic Services

This section requests information about the electronic services provided by the library. The questions require a "yes" or "no" response. If the answer was "yes" at any time during the academic year, respond "yes". Examples of Technology to assist patrons with disabilities (item 702) are TDD and specially equipped work stations.

Information Literacy

This section requests information about institutional support for information literacy, which includes the set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information, and the support of student learning outcomes. The questions require a "yes" or "no" response.

Items 800 and 801 relates to activities undertaken by the postsecondary institution, not by the library.

Virtual Reference (revised language 3.5.09) (from NISO Z39.7, text integrated for clarity)

A virtual reference interaction is a question that is received and responded to in electronic format and conforms to reference interactions in that it is an information contact that involves the knowledge, use, commendation, interpretation, or instruction in the use of one or more information sources by a member of the library staff. Virtual reference interactions include e-mail, webform, chat, text messaging, instant messaging, or other network-based medium designed to support virtual reference. Examples of Chat reference, commercial service (item 902) are QuestionPoint and Tutor.com. Examples of Chat reference, instant messaging applications (item 904) are Meebo and Library Help.