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Use Measures for Electronic Resources: Theory and Practice ---------------------------------- A Vendor’s Perspective. ALCTS June 27, 2005 Oliver Pesch Chief Strategist for E-Resources EBSCO Information Services. The questions…. What are vendors doing to make statistics gathering easier?
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Use Measures for Electronic Resources: Theory and Practice----------------------------------A Vendor’s Perspective ALCTS June 27, 2005 Oliver Pesch Chief Strategist for E-Resources EBSCO Information Services
The questions… • What are vendors doing to make statistics gathering easier? • Why use EBSCO as a source of usage statistics if not all statistics are available through them? • What is the role of the vendor to provide usage statistics for products for which they are not the vendor? • What is the impact of federated searching? • Is there a role for a “middle person” or consolidator of usage statistics? • Is COUNTER the right direction? • How can we make it better?
What are vendors doing to make statistics gathering easier? • Accessibility of usage statistics • Provide customers with the ability to set up EBSCOadmin logins with functionality limited to read only access to usage reports.
What are vendors doing to make statistics gathering easier? • Ease of use and flexibility - Options on the user interface are easy to find and easy to use. Customize reports and analysis with a few clicks of the mouse.
What are vendors doing to make statistics gathering easier? • Automation of delivery • Customers can schedule any report to be run automatically and emailed on a regular basis.
Why use EBSCO if all usage statistics are not available through them? • EBSCO delivers full text through: • EBSCOhost full text databases • The EJS e-journal gateway • COUNTER Code of Practice dictates that the site delivering full text is responsible for reporting on it • EBSCO is obliged to report usage and is the only valid source for this usage
What is the role of a vendor to provide statistics for products for which they aren’t the vendor? • A content provider can only provide usage data for content it delivers • If the provider is a listing service or link resolver, it can provide link-out statistics, but not full text requests
Linking User finds citation of interest in an A&I database. An OpenURL link provided Citation A&I Database Link menu Link Resolver Abstract or TOC E-Journal Gateway Full Text Publisher site Full text Link-Out Link-Out Link-Out
Linking User finds citation of interest in an A&I database. An OpenURL link provided Citation A&I Database Link menu Full Text Link Resolver Abstract or TOC E-Journal Gateway Publisher site Full text Link-Out Link-Out
What is the impact of Federated Searching and how can EBSCO handle this? - Federated or metasearch products can greatly inflate session and usage counts and thus this activity need to be isolated for comparative results.
EBSCO OCLC ProQuest OVID Searching without Metasearch Resources -Product 1-Product 2-Product 3… user Visits = 1Sessions = 2Searches = 2
EBSCO OCLC ProQuest OVID With Metasearch engine Metasearch -Search All -Business-Medicine… user Visits = 1Sessions = 20Searches = 20
EBSCO OCLC ProQuest OVID With Metasearch engine Metasearch -Search All -Business-Medicine… user Visits = 1Sessions = 20Searches = 20 Visits = 1Sessions = 28Searches = 28
Controlling over-counting • Libraries should isolate metasearch sessions and searches • On EBSCOhost this is achieved by assigning the metasearch to a specific user group or user profile • Support metasearch standardization activities through NISO • We need a standard way to recognize a metasearch session • Encourage further research through COUNTER participation
Is there a role for a “middle person” or consolidator to assist in providing usage? • Yes, in some form… • Module from ILS vendor allows scheduled retrieval of raw usage to produce consolidated reports • Open Source or collaborative tool, such as being proposed by the ERUS project (http://web.simmons.edu/~andersoc/erus/) • Central data warehouse which combines and consolidates usage from all vendors for many libraries
Is COUNTER the right direction? • Most definitely… • Provides a code of practice for basic but valuable reporting • Makes uniform reporting a real possibility • Clarifies expectations to vendors • Enforces compliance with the audit • Provides a forum for vendors and libraries to move forward
How can we make it better? • Develop usage-consolidation and reporting tools based on COUNTER • Machine-to-machine friendly formats • Automation of report retrieval • Continued support of standards efforts • Keeping short-term goals modest