usage data: an aggregator perspective niso usage data forum – november 1, 2007 john law

Usage Data: An Aggregator Perspective

NISO Usage Data Forum – November 1, 2007

John Law

Usage Statistics

• Content/service provider responsibilities

• Varied metrics behind the statistics

• Use in good measure

Vendor responsibility

• Standards-compliant data and reports

Vendor responsibility

• Standards-compliant services

• COUNTER compliant

• SUSHI compliant

• Simple as that?

Vendor responsibility

Account configuration

• Single site

Account configuration

• Single site

• Authentication

Account configuration

• Multi-site consortia

• Single site versus multi-site consortia

• Authentication dependencies

• And that’s it?

Account configuration

Customer support

• Account changes over time– Authentication– New sites/libraries– Changes to subscriptions (e.g. databases, etc.)

• Interpretation of statistics

• Analysis?

Complications

• Standards-compliant inconsistencies

Variations in exposure

• Consider the variations in access points– E-resources page design and navigation– A-Z list of databases vs. placement on the

main page– Database-specific links vs platform links

• Meaningful labels for discipline-specific databases

– Subject or course-specific library pages– Learning management system integration

Federated search effect

• Databases included vs those excluded

• Changes in placement/prominence of federated search box

• Z39.50 interface vs XML gateway (SRU/SRW)

• Automation that facilitates the aggregation of usage statistics across platforms

• Readily accessible stats, graphs, charts

• Amplifies complications– Increasing potential for misinterpretation

• Amplifies need for refining metrics in usage standards to increase consistency

Enter SUSHI

Take heart

• Measuring library usage

“Librarianship as a field of professional practice began to reach maturity in the last half of the nineteenth century.”

“The measures that have typically been employed to gauge library use are in question and no widely recognized substitute has appeared.”

– Danny Wallace, J. Acad Librarianship, September 2007

Take heart

• Circulation statistics

“Explanations for these ups and downs are rarely available…”

• Regarding e-resources

– “While counting of electronic uses has reached a stage of youthful maturity, an understanding of what these counts mean in the language of resource allocation is arguably in its infancy”

– Charles Martell, C&RL, September 2007

• Select metrics appropriate to each type of resource

• Use caution in comparing statistics across different service/content providers

• Work toward creating and implementing standards for application of metrics – operational definitions*

• Establish objectives for usage patterns

* W. Edwards Deming

In good measure

Thank you

John LawDirector, Strategic Alliances and Product Management

john.law@il.proquest.com

734-997-4877

“What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing.” Aristotle