Advocacy in academic
libraries & collaborative
infrastructure of library
statistics in Africa
Dr. Elisha Chiware
Director: CPUT Libraries
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Contents

Part 1 – Introduction
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
Part 2 - Approaches to advocacy
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
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
Why advocacy in libraries?
Strategic planning
Collaboration
Policy development
Marketing and promotion
Part 3 - Collaborative statistics database
infrastructure
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

Building in-house statistics database: CPUT Libraries
Building collective statistics database: CHELSA
Building a continental approach: Africa statistics project
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Part 1 – Introduction:
Why advocacy in libraries?
Advocacy is about saying to decision-makers &
stakeholders that library statistics is:



A base for decision-making and a good marketing tool
A base for analysis of current work & comparison with
previous years
Key in a public relations exercise for the library
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Part 2 - Approaches to advocacy:
Strategic Planning
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Part 2 - Approaches to advocacy:
Collaboration
Surveys
Institutional:
•Information Literacy surveys
Library:
•LIBQUAL Survey ; User satisfaction
survey (In-house); Library space
survey; Staff surveys
Ongoing:
•Exit surveys; Suggestion box
surveys
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Faculty
Information literacy certificate
Programme review manual
Collaboration with Faculties & Centre
for Continuing Education
Programme certification by professional
bodies

Face-to-face training and online
module

Assessment (per module or for
the whole course)

Detailed training statistics based
on:

o
Branch
o
Department
o
Trainer
o
Number of sessions
o
Number of trainees
o
Year of study
o
Time slots

Report covers Library’s strategic
alignment with the University;
Clientele; Teaching and Learning;
Collection; Library facilities;
Information support services; Future
initiatives and trends; Appendices

and includes: Department budget
allocation, ILL usage, database
usage, training statistics, etc.

Librarians provide comment and
insight

Taken to University Quality
Assurance Department for input

Approved by Deans
CPUT accredited certificates
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Programme review statistics
Colour coded according to faculty
Break down per subject area and Dewey range
2 year comparison for no. of items and usage
No. of items – Books, AV and Periodicals
Books include breakdown of Open shelf,
Short Loan and Reference items
Breakdown of the number of students per
Branch and student level;
Indicates the number of active students
Age of print collection
Usage
Example of the number of items circulated
per user type within the department
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Statistics on what?
Describing & measuring performance
Contribution to research, scholarship
and community services in the university
Collection size and strength
Number of postgraduate students and
researchers
Frequency of library visits and requests
for assistance
Trends in library use
Statistics and the
research librarian
Feedback to faculty/departments
User trends;
Statistics
Research
support
librarian

Usage trends of library resources by postgraduate students

Providing research committees with essential data on Post
Graduate / Researchers’ information use and behaviour

Following up on researchers’ research output

e.g. using the standard platforms like Scopus, Web of
knowledge

Is the research output of any significance to the
community?
Library management
use:
•Annual report
•Feedback to faculty
Improved facilities;
Increase post
graduate research
outputs
Library
advocacy
– to resource
allocators
More
support
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Part 2 - Approaches to advocacy:
Marketing and promotion

In line with University
strategy
 Aligning segment
characteristics with
products
 Fundamental needs
of users
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Marketing outreach
Awareness campaigns:
Engineering caucus – feedback on
library activities and Faculty involvement
E-Resources fair –
taking e-resources into public space and
interacting with faculty and students
Leesnet –
Mini conference/colloquium including
panel discussion with experts
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Part 3 - Collaborative
statistics database
infrastructure:
Building in-house statistics database: CPUT
Libraries
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Purpose

recording of annual statistics

inputting of monthly statistics
“official” library statistics
access a variety of statistics in one place
access to statistics via reports
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Database features

Source code PHP
 Database MySQL
 Minimal jscript
 No cookies, flash animation, add-ons
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Main features

Security
 Data selection
 Reports
 Automated alert system
 Document storage
 Help
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Indicators/Guidelines
3 main sources used:



Measures For Quality In SA HEI Libraries / CHELSA
CHELSA Guide to the self review of University Libraries
(2006)
ISO (ISO 2789)
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Access
Registration details (including Institution and branch)
+
Access permissions (allocated by Systems administrator) +
Roles assigned to person (by Systems administrator)
=
Menu options
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Data entry determined by:
Role
Branch
Date
Data
input
Faculty
Category
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Data entry

Staff member inputs data
per counter

Counters available
are based on access
permissions

A detailed explanation is
provided for each counter

All data input can be
retrieved via reports
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Data maintenance menu

Available to Institutional
administrators

Lists all available functionality
as menu items

Used to:

set-up parameters; allocate
permissions; create links;

provide access to templates
for non-standard data
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Reports

System administration
 Pre-defined
 View system setup

Templates
 Pre-defined

Fixed reports
 Non-standard data structures

Report designer reports
 Based on templates
 CHELSA reports
 Institutional reports

Can be downloaded as EXCEL spreadsheets
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Automated alerts

Determined by
Institution

Up to 4 alerts

Define period between alerts

Initial alerts sent to data entry
staff

3rd alert sent to supervisor as
well

4th alert – supervisor to take
action

Inspect menu allows viewing of
data input
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Documents

Can store documents on the database
 Access controlled
 Create directories
 Upload from PC
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Part 3 - Collaborative statistics
database infrastructure:
Building collective statistics database: CHELSA
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Indicators
Statistics collected for trend analysis and benchmarking with
other academic libraries in SA
Areas covered include:

Provision of stock

Annual additions to stock
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Subscriptions to electronic databases

Study spaces

No. of libraries

Clientele

Hours open per year

Library staff

Use of library services

Expenditure

Access to electronic resources
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CHELSA database module

Access restricted to global administrator
 Creates databases for institutions
 Links Institutions to regions
 Creates user records for institutional administrators
 Assigns access permissions for databases and institutional administrators
 Creates and edits CHELSA data input categories, sub-categories and counters
 Assigns definitions and parameters for categories, etc.
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Main features

Access via
web interface

Data kept
behind firewall

All database
features available
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Data Hierarchy
Two components:
 CHELSA data
 Input categories determined
by global administrator


All institutions data available
via reports
Institutional data

Usage is optional

Categories determined per
institution

Access restricted to
institution

Reports viewable by
institution only
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Access information
University Link
Region / Institution
/ Branch / User
name / Access level
Menu options
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CHELSA reports



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Available to all Institutions
Viewership based on access permissions within the institution
Can view selected years per institution
Can select which Institutions you want to view
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System notes

Submit requests
for features, new
developments or
report bugs online

View notes
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Part 3 - Collaborative
statistics database
infrastructure:
Building a continental approach: Africa
statistics project
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CPUT: IATUL and IFLA
Collaborative Activities
 2013
Post conference workshop at IATUL, Cape Town
Assisting in the development of MOOCs at Oslo University for
training librarians in developing countries
 2014
Brunei, South East Asia expertise sharing meeting
 2015
IFLA Pre/post conference workshop
 Other
initiatives
African Librarian forums – presenting on statistics
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Thank you
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