You are here

Home / Member Resources & Services / Library Management / Day-to-Day Library Management

Assigning PSTATS

Patron Statistical Classes, referred to as PSTATs, define a patron's place of residence.   In January 2018 we expanded the PSTAT list (patron record sort1 field) and modified some existing codes to provide a county-based list of codes for all Wisconsin Counties. 

  • For SCLS counties we have municipal divisions based on city or village or town or district or census tract and new ILL-County codes (replacing the X-ILL code).
  • For the counties adjacent to any SCLS county we have municipal divisions based on city or village or town.
  • For the counties not-adjacent to any of the SCLS counties, we have created 3 codes per county;
    • COUNTY WITH LIB
    • COUNTY NO LIB
    • ILL-COUNTY

Circulation statistics and adjacent county payment information are generated based on these codes.  Adjacent counties would prefer granular municipal information when they send or receive requests for adjacent county reimbursements.

How to choose the correct PSTAT:

  • Determine the exact municipal division in which the patron resides          
    • Municipal divisions within SCLS counties
    • Municipal divisions in counties adjacent to SCLS counties
    • Municipal divisions in counties that are not adjacent to SCLS counties
    • Other codes
  • What to do when you're too busy to do all of the above
  • What to do when a patron’s address changes

!! NEW !! Madison Public Library staff created an instructional video for how to use the US Census Bureau's new search tool, TigerWeb, for finding out the census tract or municipality for a patron's street address. 

Determine the exact municipal division in which the patron resides.

Municipal divisions within SCLS counties:

  1. If the patron submits the application in-library, ask if they know in which municipal division they reside.  For example, the patron may have a mailing address of Sun Prairie but they live in the Town of Burke. That is their municipal division.
  2. If the patron does not know, here are some tools to assist you in finding out in which municipal division the patron resides
  • The U.S. Census Bureau is now providing an updated digital Census Tract map that can be found here: https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/tigerweb/ You have to enable these options in the left sidebar - Census Tracts, Blocks layer and the Places and County Subdivisions layer - to indicate the type of information you are searching for. Enter the address in the Address Search bar along the top to find where a particular residence falls within these areas.
  • Another resource is My Vote WI - this works well to determine smaller incorporated places and townships. The exception to this is places like Village of Brooklyn which is in multiple counties, because the My Vote site doesn't distinguish which county an address is in.
  • AccessDane provides county subdivision-level info via address searches for Dane County addresses only.
  • Wisconsin Hometown Locator:  https://wisconsin.hometownlocator.com/maps/  Address Based Research & Map Tools.
  • Wisconsin Statewide Parcel Map:  https://maps.sco.wisc.edu/Parcels/   After you enter the address you need to right click the map to get the info.

UPDATED. For patrons with mailing addresses in the following municipal divisions, follow these directions:

  • If the County Subdivision = Madison, city, Dane County, Wisconsin, use the Census tract Geography Type.The Census tract number is contained in our PSTAT description. 
    • EXAMPLE: For an address that listed Census Tract 4.06 in this field, you would select the PSTAT code “Madison, 4.06 CITY CENSUS TRACT" in the pull-down menu for the sort1 field.
  • If the County Subdivision is listed as one of these three cities,
    • Middleton, city, Dane County, Wisconsin,
    • Sun Prairie, city, Dane County, Wisconsin or
    • Verona, city, Dane County, Wisconsin,

use this spreadsheet to determine the voting district for the patron address and select the corresponding PSTAT code in the sort1 pull-down menu.

Municipal divisions in counties adjacent to SCLS counties

For municipal divisions in counties adjacent to SCLS counties: the PSTAT will be  a city, village or town.

Municipal divisions in counties that are not adjacent to SCLS counties

For the rest of the counties in Wisconsin (not adjacent to any SCLS counties): the PSTAT will county-based and you only have two options - with LIB and NO LIB.

  • Determine which county the patron lives in.
  • Refer to the SCLS list of PSTATs for Wisconsin municipalities to see if the municipality supports a library. 
    • How do you know if a community supports a library?
      • The PSTAT spreadsheet has a column that lists the name of a library supported by the community.We have also provided a column indicating which code/description should be used for each municipal division.  If you notice an error please let us know asap so we can correct the list.
      • The Library System Map and Contact Information described above can help.  Clicking on a system in the map will usually take you to that system's web page, and many have lists of their member libraries. 
      • PLEASE NOTE: There are about 25 joint libraries in Wisconsin, three of which are in SCLS. In a joint library, more than one municipality supports the library.   These are listed in Joint Libraries in Wisconsin (PDF). 

Other codes

  • Libraries in ANY county will be assigned the ILL (InterLibrary Loan) code for the county, including SCLS counties.
  • Businesses or Schools should have a PSTAT based on whether the patron account is the end-user of the materials or a conduit to the end-user.
    • If the business or the school is the end user then assign a PSTAT according to the municipal division in which the institution is located.
    • If the business or school is a conduit to the end-user, then assign the ILL (InterLibrary Loan) code for the county in which the institution is located, including SCLS counties.
  • ANY walk-in patron, library, business or school that has an address outside of the State of Wisconsin will be assigned one of the two OUT OF STATE PSTAT codes:
    • Walk-in patron=OUT OF STATE
    • Library, business or school=ILL-OUT OF STATE

What to do when you're too busy to do all of the above?

  • If, at the point of registering the patron, you do not have time to investigate the exact PSTAT, you can enter the code “UNDETERMINED”.
    • It is highly recommended that you review and update any records where you have applied this PSTAT on no less than a monthly basis.
    • Instructions for doing “PSTAT Clean-up” are located in the Circulation Manual, Section X Circulation Codes, Part B PSTAT Clean-up

What to do when a patron’s address changes?

  • REMEMBER that any time a patron reports a change of address, or you receive change of address information from the USPS, you should determine if the PSTAT has changed as well.
  • Follow the same steps listed above for identifying the correct code to use for the updated address.

What to do when your search tools do not recognize the address?

  • Sometimes the address provided is not found in any of the search tools you have tried.This can be a result of inaccurate information provided by the patron or new housing/construction information.
  • If none of your search tools can locate or match the address, leave the PSTAT as UNDETERMINED and enter a Note on the patron’s Check Out screen requesting updated address information.

How the list of PSTATs is arranged:

  • The SCLS list of PSTATs for Wisconsin municipalities list provides the following information: System, County, Municipal Division, Library Name (if the municipality supports one), the PSTAT code and the Description you will see in the Bibliovation sort1 field (PSTAT) pull-down menu.
  • At the bottom of the list are the PSTATs for Out-of-State patrons and the Internal PSTATS assigned by LINKcat libraries for internal accounts.
  • You can download this list/spreadsheet to your own PC and sort it however you want.

For more information about PSTATs and the information on this page, contact Heidi Oliversen.

For more information about PSTAT codes and your annual report, contact Tracie Miller.

Top of Form