cleaning up gate count statistics

[Laura Baker]

I'm pretty new to my library assessment role and have a question about gate counts.  I'm trying to compile basic statistics to indicate the number of people who come into the library building.  Our counter on the security gates at the entrances (we have two entrances) shows a running tally that is bumped up each time someone walks through.  We record the counter each day and subtract today's meter from yesterday's to get a "count" of people.  I know gate counts may not be accurate, but the meter is the best indicator we have at the moment.

I'm finding that I have to clean up the data quite a bit.  Sometimes our student workers mistype the number when they enter it on our spreadsheet.  They might enter a number smaller than the day before, and we get a negative amount for the number of people that day.  That means we also have a bad starting number for the day after that.  We close at midnight, so any data entered at 12:00 a.m. gets assigned to the next day of the week instead of the day it actually pertains to.  There are many other types of errors due to bad data entry.  I'm working on a form that will do some basic data validation, but in the meantime, I'm trying to figure out what to do with the error-prone data we already have.  I can't recapture the gate count meter to fix the bad data.  I can't process the dataset with such obvious errors.  The only thing I know to do is to delete the obviously bad data from the dataset and note that this is what we had to do to process it.  We can try to improve data collection going forward, but we have to work with what we have now as best we can.

Is this typical for gate count data collection?  Do you often have to clean it up by eliminating obviously wrong data and hope it does not compromise the overall accuracy too much?  Have you found time-saving and sanity-saving ways to clean the data other than discouraging mistakes in the first place?  I keep thinking there has to be a better way than what I'm doing.

Laura

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Laura Baker
Librarian -- Emerging Technologies, Learning Commons, Government Documents
Abilene Christian University Library
221 Brown Library / ACU Box 29208
Abilene, TX  79699-9208

bak...@acu.edu
phone: (325) 674-2477
fax:   (325) 674-2202
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[Maloy, Frances]

Hi Laura:

You might wish to submit a proposal to switch from using the gate count technology to something more sophisticated (and not that expensive).  We looked at Trafsys and Sensource.  The data is collected using cameras and can distinguish between people entering vs leaving the building.   The data is collected automatically and the reports are good.  This data is from Trafsys.  

We installed the system in Sept of 2020.  We did not have a gate counter prior to this time.  

  

Frances Maloy

College Librarian

Schaffer Library

Union College

807 Union Street

Schenectady, NY 12308

518-388-6739

mal...@union.edu

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

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[Gina Petersen]

Hi Laura,

 

As a practical, low-cost intervention, assuming the spreadsheet is electronic, you could format the sheet so that if a student enters a lower number than the previous day, the cell turns red, hopefully alerting them to re-enter the number.  Excel formulas might be your friend.  That might be something like: If the gate count on the 2nd is greater than or equal to the gate count on the 1^st , report back gate count on the 2nd, else return the average of the 1^st and the 3^rd.  =IF(A2>=A1,A2,(AVERAGE(A1,A3)))

 

This got me thinking about the purpose of gate counts.

 

If this data were perfect, what would that tell you about your library?  Would it help you demonstrate your value or advocate for more resources?   Yes, increased library traffic might be a reflection of a successful program, partnership, or promotional activity. In those cases, I would put my efforts into collecting additional measures around those endeavors.

 

TLDR:  I would try to nudge the students using formatting and estimate using formulas. Hopefully, this can free up capacity to telling the stories of what coming into the building allows users to do.

 

Sincerely,

Gina

 

Gina Petersen (she/her/hers)

Assessment Librarian

Northwestern University Libraries

Northwestern University

www.library.northwestern.edu

gina.p...@northwestern.edu

847.491.2176

[Tim Klassen]

On a somewhat related note, does anyone have suggestions on counting devices? We are using our old 3M gates for now but they are no longer under service contract and we'll let them fail overtime. We have Sensource networkes sensors in one of our buildings which are great, but there is a hosting fee for the data. Has anyone found any alternatives that do not involve either 3m gates or a hosting fees?

best,

Tim

Tim Klassen, MLIS
Head, Space Planning & Facilities
he/him

UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA
Library and Museums

4-30E Cameron Library
Edmonton, AB Canada T6G 2J8
T 587.986.2680

The University of Alberta respectfully acknowledges
that we are situated on Treaty 6 territory, traditional
lands of First Nations and Métis people.

[Jennifer Giordano]

Hi Laura,

It's been several years now since I was in charge of the gate counts at my library, but you have perfectly described all of my frustrations during the years when it was part of my job.  I came up with numerous ways to automate the collection and error checking, but none of it was hassle-free.  The primary thing I achieved with these various systems was that I caught the errors on the day they happened, rather than at the end of the semester, which definitely made it easier to correct, but I don't think it actually reduced the number of errors.  

Partway through my tenure as Door Count Master we started using Traf-Sys counters (first the infrared beam counters, then the direction heat sensor ones, with the accompanying software) and I thought it was going to simplify my life immensely.  However, I found the automated systems just had different problems that caused bad data (e.g. one door was too far from the wireless data receiver and would sometimes send no data for hours, and then send a whole bunch all at once. Also, two of our doors don't have airlocks, so that messed with the heat sensors and they'd undercount people entering or overcount people leaving, so we'd end up with negative people in the building by midday.)  And on top of that, the Traf-Sys software had tons of limitations that I was pretty baffled by, like the fact that it couldn't handle that we closed at 2am and would apply those counts to the next day.  So I ended up importing the data into spreadsheets half the time anyway, because I could generate better reports that way.  (Although as I said, it's been years since I've used the Traf-Sys software, so they may have improved it.) 

Since I'm no longer involved in door counts, I don't know whether or not we've actually come up with a better way to do it, but I have a sneaking suspicion that my predecessors have approached the situation by choosing not to care as much as I did about having perfectly precise data, and just use it get a general impression of building use trends. 

Thanks,

Jen

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Jennifer H. Giordano
User Experience, Research, and Instruction Librarian
Brandeis University Library

My pronouns: she/her/hers

On Mon, Feb 14, 2022 at 8:10 PM Laura Baker <bak...@acu.edu> wrote:

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[Helen Lynch]

Hi all, 

This is more in answer to Tim's question - our Library IT person has created a bespoke door-count solution that involves a stereo camera based system. He's more than happy to discuss if anyone wants the finer details. Please just let me know off list if you'd like to get in touch with him. 

Ngā mihi/Kind regards

Helen

Helen Lynch (she/her/hers) Planning & Collections Strategy Librarian Library Ph: +64 7 838-4981 University of Waikato  |  Private Bag 3105 Hamilton 3240  |  New Zealand waikato.ac.nz

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