Usage Data for Electronic Resources WRAPS/FRIP Presentation April 24, 2007 Gayle Baker, Maribeth Manoff, Eleanor Read

MaxData “Maximizing Library Investments in Digital Collections Through Better Data Gathering and Analysis” Funded by Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)

MaxData Project Purpose Evaluate and compare methods of usage data collection and analysis Develop cost/benefit model to help librarians select appropriate method(s) for electronic resource usage assessments

MaxData Project Teams UT Libraries: COUNTER data from vendors, link resolver, database usage logs, federated search engine David Nicholas et al. (Ciber): deep log analysis on OhioLINK journal usage data Carol Tenopir and Donald King: readership surveys at UT and four Ohio universities

FRIP Equipment Award (Fall 2005) Requested PC with extra capacity for handling data HP LaserJet Printer Microsoft Office 2003 Professional Archival DVDs $2477 Consulted with David Ratledge Housed in faculty study in Hodges

Project File Sharing Account (Usestat) on library server for project files for UT Libraries team BlackBoard group site for MaxData team

Presentations Charleston 2005 (GB, ER/project intro) ER&L 2006 (GB/vendor data issues) Lib Assessment 2006 (ER, MM/combining data) Charleston 2006 (GB/vendor data results) ER&L 2007 (GB/vendor data survey) ELUNA 2007 (MM/SFX data) ALA/ACRL/EBSS 2007 (MM/data presentation) Charleston 2007 (all 3/comparing data types)

Publications “MaxData: A Project to Help Librarians Maximize E-Journal Usage Data.” In Usage Statistics of E-Serials (summer 2007) “All That Data: Finding Useful and Practical Ways to Combine Electronic Resource Usage Data from Multiple Sources.” Library Assessment Conference Proceedings (May 2007) Article on vendor data survey results in Learned Publishing (due June 1, 2007)

The Usage Data Challenge Vendor-supplied data Other data

Vendor Reports: Background Vendor-supplied data primary source of e-journal usage information Project COUNTER helpful, but… Manipulation may be required to compare use among vendors

Vendor Reports: Consolidating COUNTER Journal Report 1 (JR-1) Data from each vendor combined in Excel spreadsheet Facilitates additional analyses Sorting by selected fields Subject analysis Cost per use calculations

COUNTER: JR1 Format

Vendor Reports: Challenges Inconsistencies in data fields Journal title (articles, upper/lower case, extra information) ISSN (with and without hyphen) Time consuming to fix ScholarlyStats, SUSHI, ERMS may help

Survey: Purpose How much effort is involved in working with vendor-supplied use data? How are the data used? What data are most useful in managing electronic resources?

Survey: Subjects Sent to Library Directors at Carnegie I and II research institutions (360+) April respondents

Number of Vendors Providing Usage Reports

Reports for Different Types of Resources

Purpose for Reviewing and/or Analyzing Vendor Data

Number of Hours Processing Usage Reports in 2005

Percentage of Time Processing Vendor Data

Biggest Challenges Lack of consistency / standards (61) Takes too much time (27) COUNTER standards help but… (14)

Most Useful Statistic(s) Number of full-text downloads (67) Number of searches (41) Number of sessions (27) COUNTER statistics (26) Number of turnaways (17) Other (17)

Other (Local) Data UT – database “hits” recorded from database menu pages Federated search system (MetaLib) statistics Some libraries using proxy server logs Link resolver (SFX) data

Link Resolver Data SFX includes a statistical module with a number of “canned” reports For journal level data, one report in particular (“Requests and clickthroughs by journal and target”) is analogous to COUNTER JR1

SFX “Request” and “Clickthrough” Data UT student searching in an SFX “source” discovers an article of interest Clicks on FindText button Article is available electronically in Journal A, Package Y and Z – “Request” statistic recorded for each Student chooses link to Journal A in Package Y – “Clickthrough” statistic recorded

SFX “Clickthroughs” vs. JR1 “Full-Text Article Requests” Clickthrough is less specific, does not measure actual download But, clickthrough is a “known quantity,” not dependent on package interface SFX report as a useful supplement to JR1, comparing trends and patterns SFX contains data not in JR1 reports, e.g., non-COUNTER packages, open access journals, backfiles

Formatting the SFX Report Report from SFX is not formatted like JR1, does contain data elements Request to software vendor: Include in statistical module Incorporate into ERMS Manual or programming approach, depending on time and expertise available

Other Useful Link Resolver Reports and Data Unmet user needs Journals “requested” with no electronic full-text available Interlibrary loan requests Unused full-text report Overlap reports Subject categories

Conclusions So Far Collecting, consolidating and analyzing vendor data is time-consuming and difficult Survey of electronic resource librarians indicates many do not have enough time Acquiring data from local systems provides consistency, also requires time and effort Libraries face difficult decisions about what methods are most practical and useful

Into the Future Present selected data sets to subject librarians to see what they find useful Investigate usefulness of new COUNTER standards Will SUSHI solve our problems? ERMS? Compare our findings with those of the other MaxData teams