Popular Books Report Basics

Owned by Hannah Johnston (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Dec 02, 2019
6 min read

Basics

Aggregate Selection

The default setting for Aggregate is All Libraries. The Quick Picks section shows recommended aggregates based on the ones you commonly use. To choose a different aggregate, click the Add/Edit Aggregate button to open a menu.

From there, you can filter aggregates based on: type, province, population density, population served, budget, tier, and branch focus. You can also search for specific aggregates by name or from a list. 

Reporting Period

The default setting for Reporting Period is Current Week. Select a different period by choosing from the drop-down menu in the basic view. For more advanced options, select Custom or click on the calendars below.

YTD, Year and Lifetime

  • Last 52 weeks will display data for the rolling 52 weeks.
  • Year-To-Date (YTD) will display data for the calendar year from the first week of data for the year.
  • Lifetime will display data for every period where data was reported by the aggregate. 

The default display for Custom Period is the most recent week. To select a different time period, click on the date boxes or calendar icons below to enter the starting and ending date of the reporting period.

Why are some weeks greyed out?

The calendar weeks can display as greyed out for two reasons:

  • the week precedes the first week of data received for the aggregate selected
  • it is a week in the future

Limit Rows

The default number of rows in your report is 100. To show more report rows, open the drop-down list and select another option.

Note that if you select 30,000 or 50,000 rows the Run Report button with turn grey and a message will pop up informing you that this report is only available through the download option. While your report is downloading you are free to create other reports and use LibraryData. A downloading icon will pop up in the lower left-hand part of your screen while the report is running. To minimize this simply click on the arrow icon in the top right-hand corner. For more information on the Download Manager, check out the help page for it here.

Rank by highest

Here you can select which value you want to use to rank the results data. You can choose to rank the resulting list of titles according to loans, holds, holds:copies ratio, renewals, and copies on order simply by clicking one of the options.

Note that if you choose a reporting period that sums up multiple weeks, like last 13 weeks or YTD, then the results can only be ranked by Loans or Renewals. 

Show Only (advanced criteria)

You can choose to only view titles with Canadian contributors, titles available to order, or titles with illustrations. Click one or all of these options to turn them on and limit your results by these criteria.

Loans/Holds

You can limit your search results to a specific number of loans and/or holds using both the minimum and maximum text boxes. You can also choose to fill out only one text box so that your search results filter all titles with units fewer/greater than the maximum/minimum inserted unit number. 

Subject

To select a subject category click on the Add/Edit subjects button to open a menu showing the different subject categories.

Subject: Search Tree

The menu will initially show the six top-level format categories. To search for additional subjects, you can type in the text box at the top and as you type a drop-down menu with options will appear. You can also click on the arrow icon beside the main subject to open the search tree. To select an entire category, select the top-level subject. To select one or more individual subjects, click the checkboxes beside the subjects you want to use in the report.

Type in the textbox, or select the top-level subject to search within that category......or select any number of individual subjects. 


Please note that in compliance with the 2015 BISAC code list, Juvenile and Young Adult are now separate categories. For more information on the new Young Adult BISAC codes see this post. 

Language

To select a language click on the Add/Edit languages button to open a menu allowing you to search for a language by name or code, or select it from a list. 

Publisher/Imprint/Distributor

To search for titles associated with a particular Publisher, Imprint or Distributor, you can begin typing to have a drop-down list of available options appear. Select an option from the list, or enter a full name into the text box. You can also search for all titles associated with multiple Publishers, Imprints or Distributors simply by inserting a new entry in the text box. Repeat this step to add as many names as you'd like.

Publication Date

Select the Pub Date text boxes or calendar icons to open a calendar that allows you to more precisely specify the publication date you are looking for. Use both calendars to search for an "in between" publication date. The earlier date should be specified first. Alternatively, you can search for publication dates using just one date to find titles published before the end date or after the start date.

ISBN

This textbox allows you to search for an ISBN or list of ISBNs. If you are listing multiple ISBNs, separate each ISBN with a comma, or list each one on a separate line. You can search up to about 15,000 unique ISBNs comfortably. 

ISBN Report Error

If any of the ISBNs you have entered are not valid, you will receive an error report as seen below. To run a successful report, delete or fix the ISBN as advised by the message.

Format

To select a format click on the Add/Edit formats button to open a menu allowing you to search for a format by name, or select it from a list. 

Tutorial Video

Watch our tutorial video to learn more about building a Popular Books Report:

Results

Learn more about the Popular Books Report Results here.

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