St. Louis County Library is the busiest library in Missouri, with 5.9 million visits annually. One of my primary responsibilities is managing the circulation system. We have about 1.6 million items that can be checked out across 20 library branches. We offer thousands of programs to help serve the needs of our community.

To track the numbers not maintained by our circulation software, we have our managers submit data using an online form. Previously, it took two people two days each month to enter the data manually and roll up the report using a database that was not very reliable. It took more than a week all together to gather, collate, and post the information.

Using Google Apps for Government and Google Docs in particular, I created a system that tracks programming statistics, and other branch-submitted data in a Google Spreadsheet. One of our staff members can then use the import range function in Google Spreadsheets to grab certain cells and pull them seamlessly into a summary spreadsheet report that is posted for branch managers, directors, and planners who write grant requests. Now it is pretty much instantaneous, freeing up time for all of us for more important work.

In an instant, we can see key statistics and trends such as the number of library visits, programming sessions and attendance, and how many people participated in our summer reading club. For example, we can see that our classes on using eReaders are always full, which indicates that we need to add more classes.

We are also working on enabling managers to request specialized reports using a form embedded on a Google Site, and we are looking into Google Fusion Tables to allow for more visual charting of statistics. These types of solutions make us so much more productive, and a lot more informed. We can obtain more of what citizens want and look at trends over time to better accommodate their needs.

I am so proud of how much value all of us here in IT Services can add when equipped with Google Apps. I am so excited about the flexibility and power Google tools offer and the way they are truly transforming the ways in which we can serve the public smarter and more cost-effectively.