Recording, step-by-step directions
John and Katelyn created a recording, walking through the Annual Report step-by-step.
E-mail from John (1-22-2026)
REMINDER—When contacting Adam, Katelyn, and John about annual report questions, please copy all of us on the email. This will allow us to respond as quickly as possible to your questions.
Annual report time is here, and Adam, Katelyn, and I wanted to share the schedule/timeline to ensure submission by the mandatory deadline. You should have received notification on 1/22/26 via an email indicating that the annual report form site is now open. If you did not receive the email, please check your spam folder and general library email account to see if it was sent to that account. The email would have come from [email protected]. If you don’t receive it by the end of the day please let us know.
The Annual Report Instructions and Worksheets have been updated for the 2025 report. Please review the instruction before completing the annual report form. They can be found either at the DPI site https://dpi.wi.gov/pld/data-reports/annual-report. Additional IFLS specific information and additional updates will be shared via email as needed.
Timeline
January 2026–IFLS Staff has compiled some of the information to prefill annual report data. This data will primarily be MORE collection, patron, and circulation related data. Lori Roholt sent an email on Tuesday with some notes on the MORE information.
The 2025 Annual Report Financial Data Spreadsheet for expenditures/revenues from IFLS are attached to this email. Please use this information to complete the appropriate sections. (Note: Adam added this information to your annual reports. Some of these expenditure/revenue fields will need your local expenditures/revenues as well.) Verify any of the pre-filled data on your report.
January 22, 2026
Receive notification via email from the State that the electronic form site is open. Your ID and Password will be included in that email or one prior from the State. IFLS will send out an email letting you know that you should have received an email.
Important resources
- IFLS’s annual report workshops on January 29 at Deer Park Public Library or January 30 at Hawkins Area Library.
- IFLS will also provide a recorded run-through of the annual report this year. (watch for the recording announcement)
You can always call or email for help: contact Leah for help with programming questions, and John, Katelyn, and Adam for help with anything else!
February 13, 2026
Deadline to have the Annual Report Data entered and the form locked for review by Adam Fuller, Katelyn Noack, and John Thompson. We will be reviewing reports as they are completed. Please email Adam, Katelyn, and John when you are ready for us to review your reports. We will review and contact you if we have questions about the report. We will let you know it is okay for you to print the report and have approved and signed by the library board president.
February 23, 2026
Signed print copies must be received via email at the IFLS office. This year you can send signed, scanned PDFs to Joanne Gardner at [email protected]. The PDF file name should be “2025 City Name” like 2025 Ladysmith. IFLS needs them by the 23rd to make sure the forms are properly signed so IFLS can email them to the DPI before the State Statute deadline.
We will be sharing additional Annual Report updates as needed.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Thanks,
John, Adam, Leah, and Katelyn
IFLS Workshops
Annual Reports can be stressful, but if you attend one of these in-person workshops you’ll have time with your peers and away from the library with IFLS staff on hand to answer questions–you might even be able to get it finished while you are at the workshop! Join us for a morning walk through the report with time for questions, and then have supported work time in the afternoon.
- Annual Report Workshop – Deer Park
Thu Jan 29th 9:30am – 3:00pm - Annual Report Workshop – Hawkins
Fri Jan 30th 9:30am – 3:00pm
Bureau of Libraries Resources
The Bureau of Libraries Wisconsin Public Libraries Annual Report page has a lot of excellent information and resources to help! You will find tips for New Library Directors, What’s New for 2025 Annual Report, Specific Instructions for the 2025 Report, and an Annual Report Q&A Repository, as well as flow charts to help you make sense of some of the trickier parts of the report.
Make next year easier
Top Tips for Annual Reports (updated, January 2026). You’ll thank yourself next year if you start tracking statistics now!
Program and Meeting Space Tracking
Check out the 2026 Programming and Activity Count Tracker (link dowloads Excel worksheet and instructions). There are lots of great resources and instructions for using, and you can find it all on the Annual Report website.
New! 2026 Meeting Spaces and Usage Tracker (link dowloads Excel worksheet and instructions). A new set of questions will be introduced for the calendar year 2026. This workbook will be useful for understanding the new questions, defining meeting psaces, tracking annual use of meeting spaces, and preparing for submissions to the Annual Report. These questions will be optional for the 2026 Annual Report and required for 2027.
Reference Transactions
Reminder to count your reference transactions! Some libraries count all of their reference transactions with patrons and others do survey weeks throughout the year. Do you sometimes have trouble figuring out if a patron’s question counts or not? Check out this fancy new flowchart from the DPI!
The flowchart asks three easy questions to determine whether or not the interaction was a “reference transaction.” Still not sure? There are examples of common questions on the back side.
Share with your staff and post next to the circ desk for all their flowchart needs.
Survey Weeks
IFLS recommends a minimum of one survey week per quarter, but to get a more representative sample of who uses your library, one survey week per month is even better. Your library’s visits in May are likely different than those in January or September; so, it doesn’t make sense to use just one or two weeks out of the year to account for all the visits and help you’re giving.
Library Visits
When counting library visits for survey weeks, staff should be counting every single person who walks into your library. This includes…
- Library Staff
- Municipal Staff
- Your Waltco Driver
- Polly Patron who needs to use the bathroom
A door counter doesn’t discern who is visiting on “official library business” and your staff shouldn’t either.
Help!
- You can always call or email for help: contact Leah for help with programming questions, and John, Katelyn, and Adam for help with anything else!