User Needs and Usage as Seen Through a Consortium

1. User Needs and Usage as Seen Through a Consortium Workshop on E-Journals: Jornades sobre revistes digitals: de l’autor i el productor a l‘usuari 21 Nov 2002, Barcelona lib.consortium.ch Arlette Piguet, Head of Central Office

2. Outline Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries: Facts & Figures What do Users Need to Access Electronic Information? Assessing End-User Requirements Products Currently Offered / Providers Presentation of E-Journals to End-User Introduction of New Products Is the Consortium Meeting the End-Users Needs? Some Usage Statistics Summary and Concluding Remarks Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

3. Services Offered by Swiss Academic Libraries E-journals become increasingly popular ! Usage of SpringerLINK 1999 – 2001 Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

4. Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries: Facts & Figures I - Project partners: 10 cantonal universities 2 technical universities, 4 research institutes 7 universities of applied sciences National Library Secondary partners • Project term: 2000 – 2003 • Additional governmental funds available for license fees. • Libraries’ contributions are financial and non- financial. Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

5. Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries: Facts & Figures II Number of potential users (FTEs): 24 institutions; covering three language regions; partly different subject coverage Various university libraries also act as public library Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

6. Organisational Structure Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

7. What do Users Need to Access Electronic Information? Consortium ? User friendly interface Well-known services Library B Library A Library C Content (coverage and relevance) Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

8. Assessing End-User Requirements (I) Central Office Regular surveys at libraries: • Which products are requested ? (content) • Which provider is preferred? (interface) Organisation of trial periods / product evaluation. Library Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

9. Assessing End-User Requirements (II) Library Working groups / Experts • Evaluates end-user requirements • Suggests new products to central office • Conducts product and interfaces trials Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

10. Products Currently Offered Product portfolio covers all disciplines according to needs. • Databases: 34 databases • Electronic journals: 3‘100 titles • Licence agreements cover complete journal packages • AAAS (Science) • Academic Press • Elsevier • IOP • JSTOR - Kluwer • Nature Publishing Group (NPG) • Springer • Wiley Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

11. Providers of the Products Available Databases • SilverPlatter (local hosting at ETHZ) / OVID (USA) / EBSCOHost • Web of Science (local hosting at ETHZ)) • Servers of the respective providers Electronic journals • Servers of the publishers Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

12. Presentation of E-Journals to End-User (I) Responsibility of library. • Link to publisher or third party provider, resp.: Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

13. Presentation of E-Journals to End-User (II) • Entry in library catalogue • Some libraries maintain portals Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

14. Introduction of New Products Central Office • Public relations • Organisation of courses for the staff responsible for training at libraries • Help desk Library • Interface • Training • ... End-user Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

15. Is the Consortium Meeting the End-Users Needs? 50‘000 article downloads Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

16. Usage Statistics Central Office • Collection, analysis and evaluation of usage data of each product. • Consortial partners have password-protected access to their usage statistics (via WWW). Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

17. E-Journals: Consortial Gain Additional titles A consortium enriches the library‘s collection with new titles that weren‘t subscribed to before. Cross Access Users can download articles they didn‘t have access to before. Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

18. Additional Titles: Shown according to Publisher (all Institutions) Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

19. Additional Titles: Shown for 4 Selected Institutions 100 % Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

20. Average Usage per Title Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

21. Access to Titles Held in Print / Titles not Held in Print: Wiley Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

22. Percentage of Usage versus Percentage of Titles Available: Wiley 80 % 22% Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

23. Consortial Gain by Subject: SpringerLINK (I) Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

24. Consortial Gain by Subject: SpringerLINK (II) Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

25. Summary Usage of electronic journals available via the Consortium is rising. Almost all titles available are used. However, frequency of usage varies strongly. Some “low end” titles are rarely used. Titles held in print are used up to 10 x as often as those not held in print. This result is proven by other consortia. For the individual library the consortial gain can be very valuable. Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

26. Offer of E-Journals: Which User Needs Are Covered by the National Consortium? ETH-Bibliothek as an example: (Source: ETH-Bibliothek, Alice Keller) A consortium allows a library to offer more information to their users. However, it can never satisfy all user requirements. Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries

27. Thank you very much for your attention ! Where you can find this presentation: http://lib.consortium.ch/Literaturliste_d.html Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries