The SCONUL Statistical Reporting Tool database is derived from the annual returns made by members and others, published in the Annual Library Statistics. These returns are not complete, however, so to enable comparisons over time and between institutions to be made with confidence, LISU undertakes some, limited, editing of the data before they are incorporated into the database. This process is described in the accompanying notes, and users are advised to read these notes each year before using the data.

You can use the SCONUL Statistical Reporting Tool in four easy ways:

1. Institutional Data
   This allows you to display one set of data from any given year for up to seven institutions. Example: You could compare the Total Study Places (question 1c) in your own library to those in up to six other similarly-sized institutions within the same academic year.
2. Ranked Lists
   This produces a ranked list of all SCONUL member libraries for single items of data from any given year. Example: You can see where your library is in a ranked list of total study places in all SCONUL libraries within the same academic year.
   You can then vary this information by comparing your original data to another variable. Example: You can see where your library is in a ranked list of total study places in all SCONUL libraries divided by the total number of FTE students per institution.
3. Institutions Time Series
   This lets you compare one set of data for up to nine institutions, over a period of years. As a variant, you can also introduce another variable set of data.
   Example: You can compare the provision of total study places in three similarly-sized institutions over the period 1993 to date. You can then introduce the variable of open access workstations (question 1d).
4. Variables Time Series
   This allows you to display up to nine sets of data from the ALS for a single institution over a period of years. Example: Display total study places and total open access workstations for your library over the period 1993 to date.

You can set up your own comparison groups to calculate averages automatically for comparisons. You can also download institutional data in csv format suitable for importing into spreadsheets like Excel or statistical packages such as SPSS.

You can access the SCONUL Statistical Reporting Tool  at: http://www.sconul.ac.uk/pubs_stats/stats/0304/report/

You will need the login and password that you have set up for your submission of SCONUL statistics. These login arrangements save things as you left them from session to session.