About
This article and video tutorial (below) provide an overview of BLUEcloud Analytics (BCA), including basic concepts, terminology and report organization and information.
What is BCA?
BCA is a reporting tool for MSC libraries to run
on-demand statistics. It’s a
web-based program, which means you don’t need to download software or be logged into WorkFlows to run it. You'll simply open your preferred browser, navigate to the
BCA login page then log in.
The information in BCA is not real-time. It uses a nightly snapshot of MSC system data, so changes in the system today will be reflected tomorrow in BCA. You won’t break anything by running reports in BCA because the reports don’t change anything in the MSC system. They are merely a way to pull, view and organize information.
Any reports containing patron data other than the user ID will be limited to your Library-Specific folder to preserve patron privacy. Reports containing your library’s patron data can be built and saved in this folder where only your library will have access. All reports that you need to save for use on a later date must be downloaded and saved on your computer. Reports that send notices, print notices, or make changes to item or patron data will still run in WorkFlows.
Don’t hesitate to
open a help desk ticket to either
request a report or to notify MSC staff that a
report has errored out. Your request may result in a report template that is useful to other libraries in the MSC. SirsiDynix is still rapidly developing BCA and other BLUEcloud products, which means they're adding new functionality regularly and sometimes making changes that affect our premade reports. If you find that a report errors out or looks incorrect,
please open a ticket.
Terminology
There are several differences in naming conventions between WorkFlows and BCA.
WorkFlows Name
| BCA Name
|
Home Location
| Item Collection
|
User ID
| User Barcode
|
Current Location
| Item Status
|
User Categories
| User Attributes
|
Never (never checked out)
| 1900-01-01
|
Organization
BCA reports are grouped into folders by function. These include:
- Reports related to bills and payments, such as a daily cash report.
- Reports that generate information about circulation, including, but not limited to, circ stats by home location, item cat or subject, daily transaction stats and top circulating items.
- Reports that generate information about your library collection at present, such as item counts, collection value and shelf lists.
- Reports for maintaining your library collections, such as review lists, weeding lists, missing lists, and inventory reports.
- Reports related to holds, including lists for top holds by collection and unfulfilled holds.
- Library-specific reports and reports that generate statistics related to library users. These include requested reports specific to your library and reports that contain any user information other than the user ID. Libraries only have access to their folders.
- Reports that generate annual statistics for public libraries, such as circ stats, collection counts, intransit stats and registered borrowers.
- Reports that are useful for libraries in a sharing group, such as intransit stats, top circulating items and more.
Video Tutorial