Usage Data: An Aggregator Perspective NISO Usage Data Forum – November 1, 2007 John Law

1. Usage Data: An Aggregator Perspective NISO Usage Data Forum – November 1, 2007 John Law

2. Usage Statistics • Content/service provider responsibilities • Varied metrics behind the statistics • Use in good measure

3. Vendor responsibility • Standards-compliant data and reports

4. Vendor responsibility • Standards-compliant services

5. Vendor responsibility • COUNTER compliant • SUSHI compliant • Simple as that?

6. Account configuration • Single site

7. Account configuration • Single site • Authentication

8. Account configuration • Multi-site consortia

9. Account configuration • Single site versus multi-site consortia • Authentication dependencies • And that’s it?

10. Customer support • Account changes over time • Authentication • New sites/libraries • Changes to subscriptions (e.g. databases, etc.) • Interpretation of statistics • Analysis?

11. Complications • Standards-compliant inconsistencies When is a search a search? Topic browse? Thesaurus lookup?

12. 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

13. Federated search effect • Databases included vs those excluded • Changes in placement/prominence of federated search box • Z39.50 interface vs XML gateway (SRU/SRW)

14. Enter SUSHI • 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. In good measure • 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

18. Thank you John Law Director, 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