Measures for Electronic Use: The ARL E-Metrics Project

1. Measures for Electronic Use: The ARL E-Metrics Project Statistics in Practice - Measuring & Managing IFLA Satellite Conference • 13-25 August 2002 • Loughborough, UK Julia C. Blixrud, Association of Research Libraries

2. Forces and Challenges • Increasing demand for libraries to demonstrate outcomes/impacts in areas of importance to institution • Increasing pressure to maximize use of resources through benchmarking resulting in: • Cost savings • Reallocation

3. ARL New Measures Initiative • Collaboration among member leaders with strong interests • Specific projects developed with different models for exploration • Projects self-funded by interested members • Intent to make resulting tools and methodologies available to full membership and wider community • Continue to collect, but limit/freeze modifications to existing descriptive measures

4. ARL New Measures Projects • Demonstration project for service effectiveness measures (LibQUAL+) • Identification of measures that demonstrate a library’s contribution to student learning outcomes • Investigation of role libraries play in support of the research process • Development of tools to address cost effectiveness of library operations (staff allocation, ILL/DD study) • Project to define usage measures for electronic information resources (E-metrics)

5. Electronic Serials Expenditures

6. Percentages of Acquisitions Dollars Devoted to Electronic Resources

7. Average Yearly Increases in Electronic Resources and Total Library Materials Expenditures

8. Need for Networked Data & Statistics Funding Financial Support • To justify - make a case for continued current support for digital collections • To make a case for additional support for technology & infrastructure

9. Need for Networked Data & Statistics Infrastructure Better Internal Processes • To measure & track changes in internal processes • To enable better decision-making in allocating & prioritizing resources & needs • To enable assessment of service quality in a networked environment

10. Need for Networked Data & Statistics For Comparisons Institutional Comparisons • For benchmarking digital services • To enable competition for resources with other departments on campus

11. Need for Networked Data & Statistics Vendor Negotiation • Need for accurate reporting of network use • Need for accurate estimates of per client use • Ability to compare overlapping coverage • Need the ability to pressure vendors to price according to the library’s real need

12. ARL E-Metrics Project Three phases: • Initial Phase (May-October 2000): What do we know? Inventory of current practices at ARL libraries as to statistics, measures, processes, and activities that pertain to networked resources and services. • Second Phase (November 2000-June 2001): What can we collect? Identified and field tested an initial draft set of statistics and measures • Final phase (July 2001-December 2001): What difference does this make? Build linkages to: educational outcomes/impact, research, technical infrastructure

13. Project Participants

14. Project Leaders • Co-Chairs • Rush Miller, University of Pittsburgh • Sherrie Schmidt, Arizona State University • Information Use Management and Policy Institute, Florida State University • Charles R. McClure • Wonsik “Jeff” Shim • John Carlo Bertot • ARL • Duane Webster • Martha Kyrillidou

15. Working Definition of Networked Services Those electronic information resources and/or services that users access electronically via a computer network: • From on-site in the library • Remote to the library – but from a campus facility • Remote from the library & campus

16. Networked Information Resources • Locally Licensed Databases • Regional or Statewide Consortia Licensed Databases • Aggregated Databases • Publishers Databases • Publicly Available (Web) Resources

17. Networked Information Services • Access to text & numerical databases, electronic journals, electronic books, e-lists, e-mail • Instruction, training & workshops • Reference & information services • Virtual reference • Interlibrary loan, document delivery • IT infrastructure • Institutional & personal portals

18. Vendor StatisticsWorking Group 12 major ARL vendors met with project team in Denver preceding 2000 ACRL Meeting Academic Press/IDEAL * Elsevier/Science Direct Lexis/Nexis Ovid Bell & Howell Gale Group ISI * † netLibrarySilver Platter *EBSCO JSTOROCLC/First Search * Unable to attend Denver Meeting † Nonparticipant in project.

19. Related E-Metrics Projects–Some Have Formal Collaboration with ARL • ICOLC Guidelines • Equinox (European Union) • ISO Library Statistics standard under development • NISO – updating Z39.7 standard on statistics • NCLIS – working on standardized online database usage statistics • IMLS – Sponsored research to develop statistics for public libraries • CLIR – Consultants to review this area • DLF – Measuring digital library use • PALS (Publishers and Libraries Solutions Committee) represents the scholarly publishers and academic libraries in the UK • CENDI Web Metrics

20. Organizational Context Library Networked Services and Resources

21. Recommended Statistics & Measures • Patron Accessible Electronic Resources (R1-3) • Use of Networked Resources & Services (U1-5) • Expenditures for Networked Resources & Related Infrastructure (C1-3) • Library Digitization Activities (D1-3) • Performance Measures (P1-3)

22. Patron Accessible Electronic Resources • R1 – Number of electronic full-text journals • R2 – Number of electronic reference sources • R3 – Number of electronic books

23. Use of Networked Resources & Related Infrastructure • U1 – Number of electronic reference transactions • U2 – Number of logins (sessions) to electronic databases • U3 – Number of queries (searches) in electronic databases • U4 – Items requested in electronic databases • U5 – Virtual visits to library’s website and catalog

24. Expenditures for Networked Resources & Related Infrastructure • C1  Cost of electronic full-text journals • C2  Cost of electronic reference sources • C3  Cost of electronic books • C4  Library expenditures for bibliographic utilities, networks & consortia • C5  External expenditures for bibliographic utilities, networks & consortia

25. Library Digitization Activities • D1 – Size of library digital collection • D2 – Use of library digital collection • D3 – Cost of digital collection construction & management (Collecting these data requires staff familiar with the digital environment.)

26. Characteristics of Each Recommended Measure • Definition • Rationale • Unit of Measure • Data source • Frequency • Process • Related Issues

27. R1 – Number of Electronic Full-text Journals • Definition - Number of electronic full-text journal subscriptions – by individual institution or consortia licensing. • Rationale – Documents degree of expansion of electronic subscriptions available – can be used to show good coverage & need for more funding. • Unit of measure – the journal subscription • Data source – local or vendors. • Frequency – annual, monthly, etc. • Process– parse into database or spreadsheet, update dynamically from local catalog or vendor record.

28. U1 – Number of Electronic Reference Transactions • Definition - number of electronic reference transactions – via e-mail, WWW form, etc. • Rationale – libraries are interested in tracking the development of new electronic services. Attempt to measure reference transactions through new electronic tools and services. • Unit of Measure – request count, time it took. • Data Source – local server, manual tally, e-mail count. • Frequency – daily, monthly, annually, etc. • Process – clarify process, identify activity points, identify collectors of data, consolidate data. • Related Issues –This measure may have to broken down into additional data types – time, type of query, type of interaction, scheduling issues, measures of quality and reliability.

29. Performance Measures • P1 – Percentage of electronic reference transactions of total reference • P2 – Percentage of virtual visits of all library visits • P3 – Percentage of electronic books to all monographs • Percentage of electronic journals to serial subscriptions

30. E-Metrics Assessment Plan • Have administrative clarity • Reflect institutional structure and staff functions • Balance stakeholder needs with availability of data • Provide for the input, structure, housing & archiving of data • Propose a structure to disseminate data, reports & information – dynamic web intranet (portal)

31. E-Metrics Implementation Process • Preparation • Immediate • Long term • Identification of Tasks, Data and Needs • Data Collection • Information Management • Reporting, Dissemination & Feedback

32. E-Metrics Next Steps Call for participation among members to test proposed measures for 2002/2003 (over 35 participants to date) • Examination of the deliverables from the first phases • Collect FY02 totals • Compilation • Data analysis • Distribution for discussion • Analysis of approaches • Best practices for work processes • From E-metrics project • Locally developed

33. E-Metrics Next Steps • Continued work with vendors through international COUNTER project • Continued work with international standards activities • Workshops and training to develop necessary data analysis skills

34. Developing measures and evaluation techniques for networked services will take time, effort, and on-going learning on everyone’s part – but we must begin now. (Carla Stoffle, University of Arizona) We not only need to measure things in new ways but we also need to measure new things. (Sherrie Schmidt, Arizona State University)

35. Project Documents • Measures for Electronic Resources (E-Metrics) Part 1: Project Background and Phase One Report Part 2: Phase Two Report Part 3: E-Metrics Instructional Module Part 4: Data Collection Manual Part 5: Library and Institutional Outcomes • www.arl.org/stats/newmeas/emetrics/

36. Julia C. Blixrud Director of Information Services Association of Research Libraries 21 Dupont Circle, Ste 800 Washington, DC 20036 jblix@arl.org 202-296-2296 ext. 133 202-872-0884 (fax) 202-251-4678 (cell)