One of the great benefits of the Annual Report submissions by Connecticut Public Libraries are the suites of charts made available by these Automatic Chart-Makers.  Download the Excel files and you can create charts that compare your library to other libraries like yours, or provide charts showing your library’s trends over time.  No Excel skill required at all.  Are you completely allergic to Excel?  If so, then ask that the chart suites be sent to you.  Either way, this benefit makes all that statistics-gathering seem worthwhile.