Where's the evidence? The role of usage statistics in collection

management

Angela ConyersEvidence Base, Research & Evaluation

Birmingham City University

Collecting usage statistics

• What are we doing it for?

• Who are we doing it for?

• What does it all mean?

What are we doing it for?

Usage statistics provide essential evidence:• to show how e-resources are being used• to look at trends over time• to inform renewal/cancellation decisions• to demonstrate value for money

Who are we doing it for?

Different audiences:

• Library directors

• Academic staff

• Subject librarians

What does it all mean?

• What can the usage statistics tell us?

• What other evidence do we need?

What do libraries want from usage data?

• Be sure it is right • How well titles in a deal are being used:

– High use, nil and low use• Usage by subject area• Analyse trends over time• Ready access for reporting• Evidence of value for money• Benchmarking

Collecting the evidence

COUNTER codes of practice:• Journals and databases• E-books

Dealing with publishers who are not COUNTER compliant

Making it as easy as possible

• KPI templates

• JUSP – the Journal Usage Statistics Portal www.jusp.mimas.ac.uk

JISC Collections

National initiative for licensing online journals on behalf of the higher and further education and research communities in the UK

SHEDL aims through collaboration and combined purchasing power to achieve a shared digital library in Scotland

WHELF's mission is to promote library and information services co-operation and to encourage the exchange of ideas among University and Higher Education libraries in Wales

Libraries in JUSP

138 UK higher education and research council libraries are in JUSP

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18 publishersAmerican Association for the Advancement of ScienceAmerican Institute of Physics Annual ReviewsBioOneBritish Medical Journal Publishing GroupEdinburgh University Press ElsevierEmeraldFuture MedicineInstitute of Physics

Nature Publishing GroupOxford University PressProject MUSERoyal Society of ChemistrySAGESpringerTaylor & FrancisWiley-Blackwell

3 intermediariesEbsco EJSPublishing Technology (ingentaconnect)Swets

Publishers and intermediaries in JUSP

• Single point of access to usage data from multiple publishers

• No need to visit separate publisher sites to download usage statistics

• Usage comparison across publishers and years

• Establishing value for money

JUSP Purpose and benefits

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What data are we collecting?

COUNTER usage reportsJR1 • Journal Report 1:

Number of Successful Full-Text Article Requests by Month and Journal

JR1a• Journal Report 1a:

Number of Successful Full-Text Article Requests from an Archive by Month and Journal

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How do we collect data?

• Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI)

• M2M way of gathering statistics

• Replaces the user-mediated collection of usage reports

• 12 JUSP SUSHI clients available

• SUSHI server to gather data from JUSP

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• JR1 and JR1a usage reports from publishers

• + Add JR1 usage from intermediaries/gateways where necessary

• - Minus JR1a archive usage to see usage of current deal

Using the JR1 and JR1a reports

Some other JUSP reports

• Titles with the highest use from one publisher or all publishers in JUSP

• Titles in various usage ranges, from nil and low to very high

• Search facility – title or ISSN or keyword• Trends over time (2009- )• SCONUL return

Adding value to JUSP

JUSP enhancements

• Adding subscribed or core titles

• What titles are in the deal?

Adding value to usage reports

How many titles are in the deal?

Project Muse JR1 for 2011 for a library with the Basic Research Collection–

59% of titles in the JR1 are not in the library’s deal and will show nil use.

Titles in the Premium Collection in the JR1 498

Titles in the Basic Research Collection 206

Titles in the JR1 not available to the Library 292

How many titles are in the deal?

JUSP enhancements

• Usage patterns of subscribed or core titles

• Identification of titles in the deal or collection within the JR1 report

• Adding more publishers

Adding more value

• Costs

• FTE numbers

• Benchmarking

SCONUL derived ratios

• Journal article download per FTE user• E-book section request per FTE user• Section requests per e-book• Cost per e-journal title• Cost per e-book• Cost per e-book section request• Cost per journal article download

Where’s the evidence?

• What are we doing it for?

• Who are we doing it for?

• What does it all mean?

Where’s the evidence?

Thank you!

angela.conyers@bcu.ac.uk

www.jusp.mimas.ac.uk