SDC participation in the 2013 Public Librares Survey

DRAFT
December XX, 2013

Dear State Data Coordinator:
I am writing to request your participation in the Public Libraries Survey (PLS) for fiscal year (FY) 2013,
conducted by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Your participation in this annual census of over 9,200 public libraries in the 50 states, the District of
Columbia, and the outlying areas is both important and voluntary. Your response to this survey will
contribute to a national file of public library data that will be available to the library research community,
state and federal policy makers, and other interested users.
States have been placed into one of three reporting groups (see table below) based on their fiscal cycles
or extraordinary reporting hardship, in order to stagger data submissions and thus enable timelier
processing and release of the data file and survey report.

Reporting group
and fiscal cycle

States and U.S. territories

Survey
due date

Group #1
(July–June)

AK, AZ, CA, CT, DE, GA, HI, IA, KY, MA, MD, MT,
NC, NM, NV, OK, OR, RI, SC, TN, VA, WV, WY

April 9, 2014

Group #2
(October–September,
January–December)

AL, AR, CO, DC, FL, ID, IL, IN, KS, LA, ME, MI,
MN, MO, MS, ND, NE, NH, NY, OH, PA, SD, UT,
VT, WA, WI, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands,
Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands

July 30, 2014

Group #3*
(January–December)

NJ, TX

August 20, 2014

*extraordinary reporting hardship

The FY 2013 PLS has a firm due date of April 9, 2014 for group #1 states, July 30, 2014 for
group #2 states, and August 20, 2014 for group #3 states. No state data submission will be
accepted after the due date specified for the state. Please note: If you cannot submit data for all of
your public libraries by the due date, please submit the data you do have available, in lieu of not
submitting data at all.
Note: Please report for ALL libraries that qualify under the FSCS Public Library Definition to avoid
under-coverage, including those with data nonresponse.

The FY 2013 data collection will be conducted over the Internet via a web-based reporting
system called WebPLUS (Web Public Library Universe System). The scheduled web release
is December XX, 2013. If you need any assistance in the use of WebPLUS, please call
Andrea Arroyo or Regina Padgett at 1-800-451-6235.
This package contains the following materials for completion of the survey:
1. WebPLUS User's Guide, Version 1.8. This guide contains important information for
using the web-based survey application including an overview of its key components,
detailed instructions on processing your data, data element definitions, and other useful
information. The user’s guide is available in the web application by clicking on the View
WebPLUS User’s Guide button on the introductory page. Link to User’s Guide:
2. Five attachments, as follows:
 Attachment A. State Data Coordinator Certificate. This document contains the
web address for WebPLUS online data collection, your PLS user ID and temporary
password, survey due dates, and PLS Help Desk information. Please keep this
document in a safe place, and do not share your user ID or password with anyone.
 Attachment B. Data Submission Requirements. This document lists the data
submission requirements.
 Attachment C. Important Points in Reporting Your Data. This document
discusses valid data entry, FY 2013 survey changes, and other important information.
Please review it before completing the survey.
 Attachment D. Francis Keppel Award Criteria. This document lists the criteria for
this award. States that accumulate at least 16 out of the 20 maximum points will
receive the award.
 Attachment E. State Librarian Certification of Public Library Data, Fiscal Year
2013.
This document must be certified and returned for your data submission to be
complete. If your state librarian would like to review the data, you may print tables
using the WebPLUS Reports menu option “Tables”.
Your mentor, the Census Bureau, and the IMLS will work cooperatively with you to review your
data and resolve any problems. The data will be processed as follows:
(Note: During your edit process, use the Tables feature in WebPLUS (under Tools) to create
summary and individual library tables. Review these tables to identify and correct potential
data problems before you lock your data.)
 After you lock your data, the Census Bureau will review your submission within one day and
contact you if any problems need immediate attention before edit follow-up.
 The Census Bureau will edit your data shortly after submission and send you their findings
with a request that you return any corrections within three weeks. If you do not correct or
satisfactorily justify highly questionable data identified by the Census Bureau, the
questionable data will be deleted and imputed.
 When data are received from all survey participants, IMLS, and the Census Bureau will
review the preliminary national file and publication tables. The Census Bureau will contact
you about questionable data based on this review.
 The final files will be created, with data products forthcoming.

The FY 2013 data files and survey report will be released on the IMLS website at www.imls.gov.

The web-based data tools (Compare Public Libraries and Search for Public Libraries) as well as
all historical reports and data files are also released on this website.

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no person should be asked to respond to a
collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. The valid
OMB control number for this information collection is 3137-0074. The time required to complete
this information collection is estimated to average 80.3 hours per response, including the time to
review instructions, search existing data resources, gather the data needed, and complete and
review the information collection. If you have any comments concerning the accuracy of the time
estimate(s) or suggestions for improving this collection of information, please send them to
[email protected].
If you have any questions regarding this data collection, please contact Andrea Arroyo or Regina
Padgett on 800-451-6235. We look forward to receiving your FY 2013 data submission. I thank
you for your cooperation in this important effort.
Sincerely,

C. Arturo Manjarrez
Director of Planning, Research and Evaluation
Institute of Museum and Library Services

Attachments

Attachment A (page 1 of 1)
State Data Coordinator Certificate
FY 2013 Public Libraries Survey (PLS)
Please keep this certificate in a safe place and
do not share the password with anyone.

State: <>

PLS USERID: <>

Temporary PLS Password:
(Note: Passwords are case sensitive)
<>

Data Collection Website: https://harvester.census.gov/imls/plscollect/

Survey Due Dates:

Reporting group
and fiscal cycle

States and U.S. territories

Survey
due date

Group #1
(July–June)

AK, AZ, CA, CT, DE, GA, HI, IA, KY, MA, MD, MT,
NC, NM, NV, OK, OR, RI, SC, TN, VA, WV, WY

April 9, 2014

Group #2
(October–September,
January–December)

AL, AR, CO, DC, FL, ID, IL, IN, KS, LA, ME, MI,
MN, MO, MS, ND, NE, NH, NY, OH, PA, SD, UT,
VT, WA, WI, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands,
Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands

July 30, 2014

Group #3
(January–December)

NJ, TX

August 20, 2014

PLS HELP DESK: [email protected]
1-800-451-6235

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Attachment B. Data Submission Requirements (page 1 of 1)
Please note the following important requirements:
1. Critical edits must be resolved. Noncritical edits must be reviewed and annotated.
2. Edit annotations must be imported into WebPLUS.
3. After completion of the above steps and when your data are considered edited and final, you must
lock your data. This signifies the official submission of your state data.
4. A certified State Librarian Certification form (Attachment E) must be submitted. When you submit the
form, the IMLS requests that you enter the number of hours it took to prepare your data for entry into
WebPLUS and to review and annotate the edit report. The IMLS is required to provide the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) with statistics regarding your total paperwork burden.

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Attachment C. Important Points in Reporting Your Data (page 1 of 3)
1. Valid data entry. The WebPLUS software uses a -2 to indicate a blank data field that needs your
response. The user must replace all -2s with a valid entry (i.e., -1, -3, 0, a positive number, or
alphanumeric data, as appropriate) before locking the data. Estimates can be used if exact data are
not available.
Note: Inaccurate reporting of -1 versus 0 adversely affects data quality, prevents reliable
imputations, and results in inaccurate state totals/national totals/trend data. It is very
important to remind local respondents of the correct reporting of -1 versus 0 (defined in the
table below) as part of every data collection.
The following responses are valid in WebPLUS:
Numeric Data Elements:
Any positive number for
numeric data elements

Enter the appropriate numeric data.

0

Zero means, “We have none of this item” for numeric data (e.g., the
library does not maintain a video collection).

-1

“-1” means “We don’t know the answer, don’t collect the data, or can’t
get the data right now.”
“-3” means “Not Applicable” and is used for this item only:

-3



Square Footage of Outlet (use only for Bookmobiles and
Books-by-Mail Only outlets)

Alphanumeric Data Elements:
Alphabetic and/or numeric Enter the appropriate alphabetic and/or numeric data. Some items
data for alphanumeric data require the selection of codes for data (e.g., Interlibrary Relationship
elements
Code = HQ, ME, or NO). See Appendix A of the user guide.
-3

“-3” means “Not Applicable” and is used for these items only:


Phone (use only if library has no phone)

Structure, Name, and Address Changes:
-3

“-3” means “Not Applicable” and is used for these items only:


LINKID, OLDID, and PARENTID

2. Historical tracking. WebPLUS tracks historical (inter-year) changes in the identity and structure of
administrative entities and outlets. Historical tracking is performed on (a) name changes, (b) address
changes, and (c) structural changes (e.g., library closings, the addition of new libraries, and library
mergers).
3. Total Unduplicated Population of Legal Service Areas (data element 103 on the state
characteristics screen) and Population of the Legal Service Area (data element 208 on the
administrative entity “Population/Outlets/Staff” screen). These data are critical for per capita
calculations and presentation of data by population ranges in the survey report. Please be certain to:

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Attachment C. Important Points in Reporting Your Data (page 2 of 3)

4.



Report Population of Legal Service Area for all administrative entities.



Verify that the Total Unduplicated Population of Legal Service Areas does NOT exceed the total
Population of the Legal Service Area for all active administrative entities. (Edit check #10323 will
assist you.)

‘State Summary: Two-Year Percent Change and Net Change’ table. This table is on worksheet
‘T1’ in the Excel workbook that you can generate with the WebPLUS Reports menu option ‘Tables’.
Please review this table prior to submitting your data. Large 2-year changes may indicate significant
errors still remaining on your file.

5. WebPLUS 1.8 Revisions.
Data
Element
Number
new
changed
changed

Old

New

Data Element

552
553

552
553
554

‘Circulation of Electronic Materials’
‘Interlibrary Loans Provided To’
‘Interlibrary Loans Received From’

Definition change: Administrative entity data element #453 Audio-Downloadable Units, and #455
Video-Downloadable Units – Report the number of units. The definition was changed to collect
these data elements as ‘units’ instead of ’titles’. See new definition for units below.
Definition change: Administrative entity data element #451 Electronic Books (E-Books), #453
Audio-Downloadable Units, and #455 Video-Downloadable Units – definition now includes:
‘NOTE: For purposes of this survey, units are defined as “units of acquisition or purchase”. The
“unit” is determined by considering whether the item is restricted to a finite number of
simultaneous users or an unlimited number of simultaneous users.
Finite simultaneous use: units of acquisition or purchase is based on the number of
simultaneous usages acquired (equivalent to purchasing multiple copies of a single title). For
example, if a library acquires a title with rights to a single user at a time, then that item is counted
as 1 “unit”; if the library acquires rights to a single title for 10 simultaneous users, then that item is
counted as 10 “units”.
Unlimited simultaneous use: units of acquisition or purchase is based on the number of titles
acquired. For example, if a library acquires a collection of 100 books with unlimited simultaneous
users, then that collection would be counted as 100 “units”.’
6. Each administrative entity may report either no central library or one central library. No
administrative entity may report more than one central library. In the administrative entity file, this
simply means reporting ‘0’ or ‘1’ for central library. Where two or more libraries are considered
‘centrals’ for state or local purposes, one central library and one or more branch libraries should be
reported to PLS. If you wish to identify a central library in the outlet file, identify the library with the
largest collection as the central library for PLS purposes, and report all others as branches. Where
there are several co-equal outlets and no principal collection, report all such outlets as branches, not
central libraries.
7. The outlet records of administrative entities should be created according to the following
logic:


The central library (if any) of an administrative entity MUST have a separate outlet record
created for it. Therefore, the Number of Centrals (data element 209 on the administrative entity
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Attachment C. Important Points in Reporting Your Data (page 3 of 3)


“Population/Outlets/Staff” screen) must equal the number of outlet records with Outlet Type
Code = ‘CE’ (data element 709 on the outlet screen).



Each branch library of an administrative entity MUST have a separate outlet record created for
it. Therefore, the Number of Branches (data element 210 on the administrative entity
“Population/Outlets/Staff” screen) must equal the number of outlet records with Outlet Type
Code = ‘BR’ (data element 709 on the outlet screen).



The bookmobiles of an administrative entity MUST be reported on outlet record(s) with Outlet
Type Code = ‘BS’. Bookmobiles cannot be reported on a central or branch outlet record (i.e.,
records with Outlet Type Code = ‘CE’ or ‘BR’). Therefore, the Number of Bookmobiles (data
element 211 on the administrative entity “Population/Outlets/Staff” screen) must equal the total
Number of Bookmobiles (data element 712 on the outlet screen) in outlet record(s) with Outlet
Type Code = ‘BS’ (data element 709 on the outlet screen). Please note:





A separate outlet record may be created for each bookmobile. You may wish to create
separate outlet records for individual bookmobiles if (1) they have different addresses
and/or (2) they have different Metropolitan Status Codes.



Alternatively, a bookmobile outlet record may include more than one bookmobile.
Example: An administrative entity with four bookmobiles (reported in data element 211
on the administrative entity “Population/Outlets/Staff” screen) may report these
bookmobiles in three separate outlet records coded ‘BS’, with the number of
bookmobiles in each outlet record equal to one, one, and two, respectively. Thus, the
three outlet records report a total of four bookmobiles, which equals the 4 bookmobiles
reported on the administrative entity record.

Outlet Type Code = ‘BM’ (Books-by-Mail Only). Only Books-by-Mail services that are housed
separately from any other type of direct public service outlet (that is, central library, branches,
or bookmobiles) should be coded ‘BM’. If you have more than one Books-by-Mail Only service,
you must create a separate outlet record for each service. Note: The number of Books-by-Mail
Only service outlets is not reported on the administrative entity screen.

8. Name (of administrative entity or outlet). Do not use acronyms. Do not abbreviate the name
unless it exceeds the WebPLUS field length of 60 characters. Avoid abbreviations at the
beginning of the name, and do not punctuate abbreviations. (See User Guide Appendix G—
Standard Abbreviations for WebPLUS.) This is because customers using the Compare Public
Libraries tool on the IMLS Web site (at https://harvester.census.gov/imls/compare/index.asp) have
complained that they cannot find a library. This is often because the customer searched under the
full library name, but the library abbreviated its name or used an acronym. For this reason, we
request that abbreviations and acronyms not be used.
9. Square Footage of Outlet. Please provide this information for each central or branch outlet. All
bookmobiles and books-by-mail only outlets are coded –3 (Not Applicable). Response to this item is
very important because missing data are not imputed.

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Attachment D. Francis Keppel Award Criteria (page 1 of 3)

Keppel Award Point Criteria – Group 1
(Minimum points required for award = 16

Maximum Points = 20)
Points

Submission Points
Data Submission on or before March 12
Data Submission received March 13 through March 19
Data Submission received March 20 through March 26
Data Submission received after March 26
Final Deadline is April 9
Edit Follow-up Points
Responded to Edit Follow-up within two weeks
Responded to Edit Follow-up within three weeks
Did not respond to Edit Follow-up

10
8
6
Disqualified

10
8
Disqualified

Item Non Response
A data item that has been collected over 3 years is missing for an entire state Disqualified
Note: The IMLS makes the final decision on who receives the Keppel Award.
A data submission includes a locked data file and an annotated Edit Report.

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Attachment D. Francis Keppel Award Criteria (page 2 of 3)
Keppel Award Point Criteria – Group 2
(Minimum points required for award = 16

Maximum Points = 20)
Points

Submission Points
Data Submission on or before July 2
Data Submission received July 3 through July 9
Data Submission received July 10 through July 16
Data Submission received after July 16
Final Deadline is July 30
Edit Follow-up Points
Responded to Edit Follow-up within two weeks
Responded to Edit Follow-up within three weeks
Did not respond to Edit Follow-up
Item Non Response
A data item that has been collected over 3 years is missing for an
entire state

10
8
6
Disqualified

10
8
Disqualified

Disqualified

Note: The IMLS makes the final decision on who receives the Keppel Award.
A data submission includes a locked data file and an annotated Edit Report.

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Attachment D. Francis Keppel Award Criteria (page 3 of 3)

Keppel Award Point Criteria – Group 3
(Minimum points required for award = 16

Maximum Points = 20)
Points

Submission Points
Data Submission on or before August 6
Data Submission received August 7 through August 13
Data Submission received after August 13
Final Deadline is August 20
Edit Follow-up Points
Responded to Edit Follow-up within two weeks
Responded to Edit Follow-up within three weeks
Did not respond to Edit Follow-up
Item Non Response
A data item that has been collected over 3 years is missing for an
entire state

10
6
Disqualified

10
8
Disqualified

Disqualified

Note: The IMLS makes the final decision on who receives the Keppel Award.
A data submission includes a locked data file and an annotated Edit Report.

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Attachment E. State Librarian Certification of Public Library Data, FY 2013
(page 1 of 1)
Institute of Museum and Library Services, FY 2013

I hereby certify that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, the data submitted by the
State Data Coordinator for the Public Libraries Survey, FY 2013 are accurate.

___________________________
State Name

__________________________________________________
State Librarian’s Name (Please print)

___________________________________________________
State Librarian’s Signature

_______________________
Date

Estimated number of hours State Data Coordinator took to complete the
survey:

Hours

Please fax this form toll free to:
PLS Census Staff @ 866-394-0138
Or
Scan and email to:
[email protected]

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