Center for Information and Communication Studies

Measuring and Applying Data about Users in the Seton Hall

LibraryCarol Tenopir

Rachel Volentine

Lisa Rose-Wiles

Charleston 2012

Center for Information and Communication Studies

First some background…

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Multiple institutions using multiple methods to measure multiple values for multiple stakeholders

Librarians

Undergraduates

Graduate Students

Faculty

Researchers

Administrators

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Books and Ebooks

Special Collections

Information Commons

Comprehensive LibraryTeaching

Reading and Scholarship Tools

Website and Value

Bibliography

Current Projects

Learning

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•6 universities in the UK

•2 universities in Australia

•5 universities in the US• Including Seton Hall

Measuring the value of scholarly reading in:

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Reading and scholarship surveys

Measure purpose, outcome, and value from scholarly reading by faculty and students

Include all reading (from library and not)

How and where readings are discovered and obtained

Based on premise that not every reader acts the same for every instance of reading or every type of material

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Tenopir & King scholarly reading studies, 4 types of questions:

1.Demographic

2.Recollection

3.Critical Incident

4.Comments

Therefore, insights into

both READERS and READINGS

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The following questions in this section refer to the SCHOLARLY ARTICLE YOU READ MOST RECENTLY, even if you had read it previously. Note that this last reading may not be typical, but will help us establish the range of patterns in reading.

Critical incident of last reading

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The following questions in this section refer to the BOOK FROM WHICH YOU READ MOST RECENTLY, even if you had read it previously. Note that this last reading may not be typical, but will help us establish the range of patterns in reading.

Critical incident of last reading

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Value of the collections to students and faculty

• Purpose of readings• Value of readings• Readings from the library compared to

readings from elsewhere• Variations between article and book readings• Implications for the library

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Key findings for SHU:

1. Faculty and students have a high demand for scholarly articles and books.

2. Article and book readings support the faculty’s teaching and research and the student’s course work.

3. Current online subscriptions are critical, but electronic back files may also be a good investment.

4. The library is an important source in providing access to articles, but users may not always differentiate between the library’s e-resources and other sources.

5. Faculty and students tend to purchase books, and there may be unfulfilled needs.

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Faculty and students have a high demand for scholarly articles and books

Facult

y

Gra

duat

e stu

dent

s

Under

grad

uate

stu

dent

s0

5

10

15

20

25 22 23

15

64

6

ArticlesBooks

Rea

ding

s pe

r m

onth

n=84 (faculty), 144 (graduate), 149 (undergraduate)

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Article and book readings support the faculty’s teaching and research

Research and writing

54%Teaching22%

Current awareness

13%

Other11%

n=84

Research and writing

44%

Teaching42%

Current awareness

3%

Other11%

Principal purpose of article reading

Principal purpose of book reading

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Article readings support students’ course work

Help complete assignment, pa-per, thesis, etc.

Required reading Other0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

66

16 18

63

11

26

Graduate students

Undergraduate students

n=144 (graduate), 149 (undergraduate)

Per

cent

Principal purpose of reading

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Book readings support students’ course work

Help complete assignment, pa-per, thesis, etc.

Required reading Other0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

31

49

2014

74

12

Graduate students

Undergraduate students

Principal purpose of reading

n=144 (graduate), 149 (undergraduate)

Per

cent

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Current subscriptions are critical, but back files may also be good investment

Over 10 years old

10 ~ 6 years 5 ~ 2 years Less than 2 years

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

14 12

23

51

1015

3342

1914

24

43

Faculty

Graduate students

Undergraduate students

Per

cent

n=84 (faculty), 144 (graduate), 149 (undergraduate)

Age of article reading

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The library is an important source in providing access to articles

Library/school Free web journal Other0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

53

4

4352

15

3338

2735

Faculty

Graduate students

Undergraduate students

Per

cent

n=84 (faculty), 144 (graduate), 149 (undergraduate)

Source of article reading

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Article readings obtained from an electronic source

Faculty Graduate students

Undergraduate students

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

70

91 88

30

9 12

PrintElectronic

n=84 (faculty), 144 (graduate), 149 (undergraduate)

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Faculty and students tend to purchase books

Purchased Library/School Other0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

40

13

47

67

17 16

55

2718

Faculty

Graduate student

Undergraduate student

Per

cent

n=84 (faculty), 144 (graduate), 149 (undergraduate)

Source of book reading

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Implications for SHU:

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Great results to take to the Provost’s office

• Article reading by SHU faculty and students is similar to other participating universities.

• 76% of article readings and 86% of book readings support faculty research & teaching.

• 54% of articles support faculty research.• 70%+ of articles faculty obtained from the library

are ‘important to essential’.

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Online articles are essential• Majority of all articles were obtained online.• Highest demand is for current articles.• But – some demand for older articles –

should we invest in back-files as well as current subscriptions.

• BUT: many students (and some faculty) think articles are “free on the web” or come from “their school or department”.

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Book use is relatively low

• The library is not the main destination for books.

• Faculty and students purchase most of their books.

• But 63% of faculty book readings for research come from the library.

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Corrective steps• Branding all over our resources down to the

article level.• Wide-scale weeding of old/unused books.• Moving books from reference.• E-book PDA project• Collaboration with teaching faculty.• Plans for follow-up study

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Thank you!

For further information: http://libvalue.cci.utk.edu