Effective and Meaningful Statistics to Argue For Digital Services,
Funds and Outcomes
Sue HenczelCathie Jilovsky
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The Value of Statistics• Why do we count and
measure?• What can we count and
measure?• How can we count and
measure?• Who do we count and
measure for?
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Why count and measure?
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• To plan
e.g. space, staffing, technology
• To prioritise
e.g. collection development
• To budget
• To benchmark
Internet hosts 1993-2003Numbers in Millions
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Transition from print to digital
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Increasing digital content impacts on
• space, technology, budget, staffing levels and staffing type
• collection development and management
• user expectations and behaviours
Growth of Digital
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0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
04 06 08 10 12
Information Delivered into Library
Web
Digital
Impact on statistics collection
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• Incorporate remote usage
• Identify those in library who are not using collections
• Development of new measures
• Include both print and digital
• Mixture of data gathering processes
Median Growth in Expenditures on E-resources
http://www.arl.org/newsltr/235/snapshot.html C A V A L
Effective Statistics
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• Demonstrate value and relevance of a government library which is under threat of closing
• Show that building an Information Commons will be good for the library
• Justify the expenditure on print and electronic to achieve balance
What to count and measure?
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1. Physical things
2. Collections
3. Usage
4. User populations
5. Income and expenditur
What - Physical things
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• Number of desks, PCs, printers, …• Linear meters of shelving• Staff hours, staff levels, staff numbers• Opening hours
What - Collections
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Print Collections
• Volumes, titles, subscriptions …
Electronic Collections
• Databases, titles, issues ..
• Subscriptions
• Digitised materials
Percent of Expenditures on E-serials
C A V A L http://www.arl.org/newsltr/235/snapshot.html
What - Usage
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• Loans / in-house use
• Inter-library loans and document delivery
• Website hits
• Database usage
• Reference enquiries
• User education sessions …
What - User Population
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• Potential users (total population)
• Actual users
•In-house users
•Virtual users
• Non-users
What - Income and Expenditure
Income
Expenditure
• Facilities (building, power … )
• Staffing
• Materials / collections
• Equipment (incl. networks)C A V A L
How - Physical
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• Manual
• Person counting / measuring
• Incremental
• Automated
• ILMS
• Asset registers
• Turnstile counters
How - Collections
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• Mostly automated – ILMS, accession listings
• Print – MARC records (per title)
• Electronic – MARC record (per title, per collection, per part of title)
Median Expenditures on E-serials
C A V A L http://www.arl.org/newsltr/235/snapshot.html
CAUL Statistics – Deemed List
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How - Usage
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• Loans – ILMS - automatic
• In-library usage – manual
• ILLs – auto system (maybe!)
• Website hits – automatic
• Database usage – automatic
How – User Population
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• Potential Users – institution / funding body/ census data
• Actual Users – ILMS
• Surveys
• Website/Database hits
How – Income & Expenditure
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• Library expenditure – library accounts system, ILMS, institutional accounts system
• Library income – library accounts system, ILMS, institutional accounts system
Issues
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• Transition from print to digital – creation of hybrid environments
• Standardization and consistency
• Non-persistence of digital
• Pressures on libraries
•From owners/funders
•From users
CAVAL’s Online Statistics Prototype
C A V A L http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/test/caul/
CAVAL Collaborative Solutions
http://www.caval.edu.au
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