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MINES for Libraries™

Presented by

Martha KyrillidouDirector of the ARL Statistics and Service Quality Programs

Association of Research Libraries

at

PALCIOctober 24, 2008

www.arl.org/stats/

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ARL Statistics

• More than 50% of the library materials expenditures in major research

libraries is spent on electronic resources

• This proportion is even higher for smaller college and university libraries

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ARL Toolkit…

• StatsQUAL– ARL Statistics – LibQUAL+– E-Metrics– DigiQUAL+– ClimateQUAL

–MINES for Libraries• Brinley Franklin and Terry Plum

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Measuring Digital Content Use

The most popular current method of measuring usage of electronic resources by libraries is not through web-based usage surveys, but through vendor supplied data of library patron usage or transaction usage.

Web-based usage surveys are increasingly relevant in the collection of usage data to make collection development and service decisions, to document evidence of usage by certain patron populations, and to collect and analyze performance outputs.

Brinley Franklin and Terry Plum, “Successful Web Survey Methodologies for Measuring the Impact of Networked Electronic Services (MINES for LibrariesTM)” IFLA Journal 32 (1) March, 2006

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What is MINES?

• Action research– Historically rooted in indirect cost studies– Set of recommendations for research design– Set of recommendations for web survey

presentation– Set of recommendations for information

architecture in libraries– Plan for continual assessment of networked

electronic resources– An opportunity to benchmark across libraries

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MINES for LibrariesTM

• MINES is a transaction-based research methodology consisting of a web-based survey form and a random moments sampling plan

• MINES typically measures who is using electronic resources, where users are located at the time of use, and their purpose of use in the least obtrusive way

• MINES was adopted by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) as part of the “New Measures” toolkit in May, 2003. 40 North American universities in the last four years. More than 100,000 North American networked services users have been surveyed using a standard protocol.

• MINES is different from other electronic resource usage measures that quantify total usage (e.g., Project COUNTER, E-Metrics) or measure how well a library makes electronic resources accessible (LibQUAL+™).

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Questions Addressed By MINES for Libraries™

• How extensively do sponsored researchers use electronic resources? How much usage is for non-funded research, instruction/education, student research papers, and course work?

• Are researchers and instructors more likely to use the electronic resources from inside or outside the library? What about other classifications of users?

• Are there differences in the use of electronic resources depending on the user’s location (e.g., in the library; on-campus, but not in the library; or off-campus)?

• Could MINES, combined with usage counts, provide an infrastructure to make electronic resource usage studies routine, robust, and easily integrated into administrative decision-making process for assessing networked electronic resources?

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Library User SurveyPatron Status

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Library User SurveyAffiliation

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Library User SurveyLocation

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Library User SurveyPurpose

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Key aspects …

• Ongoing assessment service

• R&D opportunity to understand and improve the technology infrastructure

• Inform decision making

• Provide basis for sound actions

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Library Assessment Conference

Fall 2010

Baltimore/Washington DCUSA