Patrons at your main branch mostly hail from all over town, but patrons at your eastside branch come from within just a few blocks away. Or do they?? Do you know how far people travel to get to a particular location? And, if you did know, how might it change your collection and outreach programs?
Branch Insights, a new Analytics On Demand app, tracks cardholders’ use across various branches in a single library system. With this information presented in maps and tables, you can gain insight into where and how individual patron types are engaging the library system so you can tailor materials, programs, services, and outreach to meet patron needs at each library site.
Three categories, endless insights
As a starting point, this functionality uses library card data to classify patrons into three categories:
- Single Home Branch, who use their home branch or the branch that has the shortest drive time from their home.
- Multi Home Branch, who use their home branch and at least one non-home branch.
- Non-Home, who do not use their home branch and use one or more non-home branches instead.
First, your patron input file is translated visually into a table and bar chart show the number of households (by home branch).
And then things get really interesting: the analysis matches patron records to the Experian Mosaic lifestyle characteristics, which can be broken down to the branch level with a set of maps and mosaic segmentation reports for each branch. This appends household-level demographic and lifestyle characteristics to each patron.
These lifestyle characteristics are used around the world to classify and segment consumers and allow for targeted marketing. Your library report will identify such consumer groups in your area as couples with clout, aging of Aquarius, families matter most, urban edge, and no place like home. These classifications help you understand what is most important to various patrons. And that knowledge can help you develop.
Target, tailor, triumph
Analytics On Demand (and the new Branch Insights module) can help your library respond to your community like a Fortune 500 company and create the collections and programs that serve them best. Librarians know better than anyone that information is power. Harness the power of Branch Insights…and learn more than you’ve ever known about your patrons.
See for yourself what type of information you can get; download a free sample report today.Air Max