By: Leigh Tinik

The Library Assessment Department’s mission is to use evidence-based approaches aimed at reducing uncertainty to inform decision making. The Department strives to increase the transparency of library service and operational data and provide data and analysis in support of strategic and operational needs.

In order to provide faculty and staff with access to library data to better inform decision making, the Assessment Department has developed a University Library Factbook, including up-to-date
information on key library metrics. This factbook contains statistics on circulation, inter-library loan, full-text journal article and ebook downloads, website analytics, reference transactions, study rooms, gate counts, student enrollment, and library personnel.

Data for these metrics is displayed by fiscal quarter. Information is shown by fiscal quarter, rather than academic semester, due to the reporting requirements of the Association of
Research Libraries and the Association of College and Research Libraries. The Factbook contains historical information from FY 18-19 until present and will continue to be updated quarterly. In addition to historical trends, statistics are broken out by Library whenever possible to enable decision making by specific location.

The purpose of this dashboard is to provide up-to-date information for use by colleagues across the many library locations to help inform practices. We would love to hear from
you if there are additional metrics or visualizations that would be useful to you. If you have any questions or comments regarding the Factbook, please reach out to Leigh Tinik at law222@psu.edu or 814.863.1880.

The Factbook can be viewed on the University Libraries Staff Site, at the following location:
https://staff.libraries.psu.edu/assessment/quarterly-statistics