How Do I Determine Eligible Open Access Customers & Transactions?

This worksheet is to aid with data gathering for the Online Report Form. The worksheet includes all public libraries, counties, participating academic libraries, branch libraries, and contracting cities in one document. A few things to note on the worksheet:

• Branches are listed and indicate their main library. Circulation to those branch library cities should be reported under the main library. For example, the city of Asbury is a branch of the Dubuque County Library. All circulation to residents of Asbury should be reported as Dubuque County Library.
• Contracting cities are listed on the worksheet. Any transactions to patrons from those towns should be reported under the contracting city rather than the home library. Do not report transactions to residents from cities that contract with your library.
• All Iowa counties are listed in alphabetical order on the worksheet. Any transactions to rural residents from those counties may be reported under the county name rather than a local library. See below for instructions on how to report transactions to rural residents.
• Do not include SILO interlibrary loan system transactions on this form. Those are tracked within the system.

Download the Open Access Worksheet

The jurisdiction is the area for which a library is funded to serve. This includes:

1. Any city that funds the public library including the city where the library is located, and any contracting cities.
2. Any unincorporated jurisdiction that funds the public library including the unincorporated portions of the county where the library is located, and any unincorporated portions of other counties.
3. Any participating college, university or community college library. 

1. A library can claim Open Access circulation to rural residents from other counties, but may not claim circulation to rural residents of its own county or other county that contracts with the library for library service.
2. You may use one of two methods to report Open Access circulation to rural residents (outside your own county). You should only report rural circulation using option A -OR- option B:
   1. You can report rural circulation under the county name. All counties in Iowa  are listed in alphabetical order on the form.
   2. -OR- You may continue using the old method where you determine the local library for the resident. Below are suggestions on which library to choose. Any of these options are acceptable.
      1. If the patron has a rural address from a city with a participating public library, count that as the local library
      2. If the patron has a rural address from a city without a participating public library, choose any participating public library in the county to be the local library
      3. Choose the largest library in the county
      4. Choose the library in the county seat
3. If the customer is from rural Dubuque, Scott, or Woodbury counties - these three have county library systems - report the patron under their respective county library system. City public libraries in these three counties are allowed to count rural residents from their own county as eligible for Open Access.

1. Contracting cities are incorporated cities that do not have a public library and contract with the public library in another city.
2. Report circulation to residents of contracting cities on the line for that contracting city. All contracting cities are now included on the form.
3. Note: Residents of cities that contract with your library for service are not eligible for Open Access reimbursement and should not be reported.
4. Transactions to residents from an incorporated city that is not listed on the form are not eligible for Open Access reimbursement.

A patron is considered eligible for Open Access if:

1. They are a resident of Iowa.
2. They live outside the local library jurisdiction.
3. And they meet one of the following criteria:
   1. Lives in a community that provides a public library.
   2. Lives in an unincorporated area that provides, or contracts for, library services.
   3. Lives in a community that contracts for library services.
   4. Attends a participating Iowa public or private university, college, or community college.

A patron is considered ineligible for Open Access if they are a:

1. Resident of your city.
2. Resident of a city that contracts with your library for library service.
3. Rural resident of your county or other county that contracts with your library for library service.
4. Resident of a city that does not have a public library and does not contract with a library for library service as required by Iowa Code Section 8A.222.
5. Resident from outside of Iowa.

Transactions are eligible for Open Access if they are:

1. Physical items in all formats except for equipment.
2. Items must be from your collection and for use outside the library. Items packaged together as a unit and checked out as a unit, are one transaction.
3. Playaways or similar devices.
4. Renewals of eligible items as listed on lines 1 to 2 above.
5. Do not count automatic renewals as an eligible transaction.

Transactions are ineligible for Open Access if they are:

1. Downloadable audio, video, e-Books or other electronic items.
2. Database usage.
3. Equipment including laptops, tablets, projectors, game consoles, eReaders, wireless hotspots, or other types of equipment.
4. Automatic renewals.