Knowledge Base: Library Help

General

Collection, Circulation, Cardholders - Polaris Annual Report

Much of the information you will need from the Annual Report (Collection, most of Circulation, and the Cardholders part of the Library Access section) is in a Polaris report you can pull. It's nicely laid out in order of what the Annual Report asks of you.

It's called "Annual Report - updated January 2023" and located in Utilities > Reports & Notices > Custom.

You will be choosing the year that's just passed in the dropdown menu.

Detailed instructions on how to pull it are linked at the bottom of this article.

Circulation

eContent

Your eContent (eBooks, eAudiobooks, and All other eContent combined) will be in your eResource PowerBI Report on the "Local: Total eResources" page. To get the "All other eContent combined" number, subtract the eBooks and eAudiobooks circulation numbers from the "Total" on the bottom.

Note that Power BI licenses are usually only purchased for library managers, so library staff and board members will need the manager to get this information for them. Managers will need to be logged into their library Microsoft account to access the report.

In-Library Use

What you use for the "In-Library Use" field in Circulation depends on how your library operates. If you don't use the "In-House Check-In" feature of Polaris, you will need to have gathered this information yourself in a "stats week" or something similar and estimate based on that.

If you regularly use the "In-House Check-In" feature of Polaris, you can pull the totals for the previous year using SimplyReports.

Instructions on performing in-house check ins and pulling the report to get the numbers (note that you will need to be logged into your library Microsoft account in order to access them): In House Check In

Library Access

Website Visits

Website visits are in the Website Power BI Dashboard. They will be the "Sessions" number on the "website data" page. Note that Power BI licenses are usually only purchased for library managers, so library staff and board members will need the manager to get this information for them. Managers will need to be logged into their library Microsoft account to access the report.

Public Wifi Sessions

Public wifi sessions are emailed to you every month with the subject line "NLLS - [your library code] - Monthly Wireless Report [date] - [date]". You will need to total them up yourself, but they can easily be found by searching your emails for "Monthly Wireless Report".

If you haven't been receiving these emails at all, you likely missed signing up for them. Send us a ticket at ask@nlls.ab.ca to get the emails re-sent to you and to get signed up for next year!

General

The rest of the Library Access section is information only you will have, and will need to take from your own records.

Programs

Virtual Programs

If your library participates in NLLS Reading Programs, the totals for your patrons' participation in those virtual programs will have been emailed to your library manager after the Winter and Summer Reading Programs closed.

General
The rest of the Programs section is information only you will have, and will need to take from your own records.

The rest of the Annual Report is information only you will have, and will need to take from your own records. Hours, Personnel, and, Facility are all sections you will need to fill out based on your own information.