Collecting Usage Statistics for E-Government Resources

Christopher C. BrownUniversity of Denver, University Libraries

cbrown@du.edu

May 20, 2014 -- Online via GPO’s iCohere Platform

PURL Primer

Source: http://www.fdlp.gov/collections/distribution/709-withdrawal-recall-destruction-procedures

The Problem

We have statistics for government documents print circulation

• But our directors want statistics• The viability of our depository

status may rest on our ability to provide statistics

We don’t have any statistics for online usage

Statistics we don’t know

Visits to online docs URLs by our users – we are clueless!

How many times URLs are visited by our users

What titles are visited by our usersWhat agencies are most popular with our

usersWe don’t know the whole picture

How Many PURLS?

142,117 records in CGP with PURLS (as of May 13, 2014).

There are a total of 179,566 PURLS in the GPO PURL database (as of May 13, 2014)

At present, GPO creates about 850 PURLS each month

Source – James Mauldin, GPO

Part 1: GPO Solution

PURL Referral Reporting

The tool also provides a listing of the top fifty (50) referred PURL resources per hostname and/or IP address with: The PURL path. The full path of the target URL for each PURL. The total requests for that individual PURL. A search link utilizing the CGP to view cataloging records for the individual PURL.

GPO releases monthly PURL referral reports; however, these reports include aggregate totals only. Referrals totals strip out bot traffic and focuses on patron requests.

The PURL Referral Reporting Tool is locked down to Federal depository libraries only. Data is current as of the previous day. Historical data is available for twelve months. Tool functionality may be expanded in the future to include greater historical data retention and additional functionality based on funding and community feedback.

Source: http://www.fdlp.gov/23-about/projects/141-purl-enhancement-and-stabilization

Since Dec. 1, 2010 the referral reporting system has been operational.

Steps to getting Custom Reports

Gather the relevant hostnames or IP addresses for your institution – sites where you have PURLs Your library catalog (maybe you have two versions like

we do – classic catalog, next-gen catalog Your web discover tool (if you have one) Your library instruction guides (like Libguides) Other Web pages that may contain PURLs Also consider using your institution’s numeric IP address

Go to http://purlreferrals.fdlp.gov/ (You will need to login with your depository number and your internal password).

Run Your Query (login with Internal FDLP Credentials)

Results of Your Query

Top 50 Results

Export to CSV (Open with Excel)

You can See Exact Titles for Top 50

Older PURL Referrals

http://www.fdlp.gov/file-repository/collection-management/purl-referrals

You can get older PURL referral reports from here:

Compare your hits against other depositories

PURL Rot

In theory, it would be a wonderful world if someone behind a curtain at GPO would check every PURL every day to check for errors. But that does not happen. It is up to us – documents librarians – to report these.

PURL Rot: Reporting a Broken PURL

PURL Rot: Keeping Track

PURL Retrieval Summary

You can get the total PURL hits by month,Or the top 50 most popular hitsYou cannot get all specific URLs. No way to

do a more comprehensive analysisStatistics are ONLY for PURLS, not for any

other online government URLsStatistics can be incomplete at times (GPO

server down, etc.)

Part 2: Local Solutions

Objective

To track online government document clickthroughs when accessed via the online catalog

oNot possible to capture every use of government info by our usersoBut is possible to capture all clickthroughs via the OPAC

Different Approaches

GPO PURL Tracking Local URL Tracking

Any PURL clickthrough from an institution

Any URL clickthrough via the OPAC

Broad view: top PURLS and overall numbers

Narrow view: specific PURLS/URLS and then can derive titles, SuDocs, etc.

Wait for GPO to aggregate data Instant access to data

Basic Idea: How it Works

A URL is prepended to the PURL (or URL)This URL initially directs to a library-hosted

web server which traps for the date/time, PURL (or URL), URL of requestor

The user is then instantly redirected to the PURL (or URL) site

Two Methods to Track Locally

Prepend to PURLMethod #1: trap for the URL, date – more

difficult at the end, but easier at firstMethod #2: trap also for a unique record

number – more difficult at first, but benefits later

A Simple Prepend URL

http://library.du.edu/clickthrough/index.php/clicks/?type=gov&url=

Clickthrough Dashboard

Benefits of Clickthrough Project

We can provide meaningful stats to the library director

We can see high-use and low-use areasWe can tell if users benefit from our special

projectsWe can do reactive URL maintenanceWe can see turn-aways and other problemsWe can see search engine attacksWe can see how our docs work within your

discovery tools

Local Use for Docs by FY

Specs: How to ask for a clickthrough system

Project hosted on stable server (such as library Web server).Should be able to handle long URLs – up to 700 characters.Prepended URL sends request to library server. Included in prepended URL is cataloger-supplied 3-letter

code of URL type (ex: gov, cou, ran – any 3-letter combination that may be needed in future).

Server records date/time, IP address of requestor, 3-letter code of URL type, and URL requested.

Server redirects user to desired URL.Reporting mechanism available to gather clickthroughs.Archiving function available to archive stats.Ability to view archived records.Secure login for authorized users.Just give this slide to a code-writer in your

library – and you may have a link-tracking system soon!

Local Solutions to Problem

http://www.fdlp.gov/file-repository/1051-tracking-online-document-usage-from-the-catalog

Further Reading

Questions?

Christopher C. BrownUniversity of Denver, University Libraries

cbrown@du.edu