Using Google Analytics at Library websites OU Library Seminar – 14 th January, Tony Hirst ( Hassan Sheikh The Open University, United Kingdom

OU Library – more than a building …

Open Library 2.0

What are OU Library users doing online?

Google Analytics

How well is the homepage working?

Google Analytics reveals … Most clicked links: –Databases (20%) –eJournals (19%) –Library Catalogue (11%) Least clicked links (well quite a few!) –News links (less than 1%) –One-stop search (almost 0%) –Large images in the middle of the page (< 1%) –Etc.

Where the users are coming from?

On campus users: mainly Monday - Friday

Off campus users (?): steady throughout the week

What contents users are looking at?

Most popular pages (homepage aside) Journals Databases eResources (Online collections by subject)

Top traffic sources

Most popular databases LexisNexis Butterworths (x12345) JSTOR (x23456) Westlaw (x34567) PsycINFO (x45678) Academic Search Complete (x56789)

Where the traffic is coming from to the databases(1)? By referral Academic Search Complete (x56789) Intranet – second highest referral

Where the traffic is coming from to the databases(2)? By referral PsycINFO (x45678) Intranet – very few hits

Where the traffic is coming from to the databases(3)? By network location PsycINFO (x45678) Top 5 network locs are non-OU

Most popular Journals* JSTOR (y12345) Academic Search Complete (y23456) Blackwell Synergy (y34567) ACM Digital Library (y45678) IEEE Xplore(y56789) * Incomplete data – due to legacy urchin tracking code being used!

Where is Journal traffic coming from (1)? by referral

Where is Journal traffic coming from (2)? by network location

Most popular Subject Resource Collections The law/ law col The law legislation page Psycology col Education col Science – General col

Where is the Collections traffic coming from (1)? by referral – Psychology collections Most of the traffic is coming from VLE …

Where is the Collections traffic coming from (2)? by referral – Law collections Most of the traffic is coming from College of Law …

More on user behaviour …

Avg time on site/Pages per visit/bounce rate

Avg time spent on site per network location

Onsite search (1)

Onsite search (2) Sudden change in search trend?

Onsite search (3) 99.29% visits to the site are without search (indicates good navigation design?)

The Help page How to cite a reference help page example

What’s next?

Course specific reports What Library resources are used by the users? What sorts of reports can be usefully generated for those course teams? What sorts of reports can be usefully generated for the library contacts for that course? Track student behaviour on different courses (or residential schools) and feedback to relevant course teams

Some more actions (1) Segment onsite/offsite and regional users (apply IP range filters) Track by each course (from VLE) which are sending traffic to Library resources Enhanced OU Library PI reports – different view points (Many Eyes tool?) Improve homepage – keep a regular eye on site overlays

Some more actions (2) Buyer/owner of each database to keep an eye on the usage Reduce long list of databases – show only top 5 as GA suggests Use consistent names and URL paths Use the new GA script to track journals traffic

OUseful blog entries on Library Analytics Part 1: And then follow the series (seven posts in total!)

Photo credits Student life Web analytics washing Light in the forest Computer bacha Google Analytics sticker

Thank you! Tony Hirst ( Hassan Sheikh The Open University, United Kingdom