Presented at the GAELIC Summer Training Camp November 2010

Use of Usage Statistics in Academic Libraries: Experiences of the

University of the Witwatersrand LibraryChiratidzo Chatikobo

Manager: Information ResourcesUniversity of the Witwatersrand,

Johannesburg, South Africa

Originally presented at the IFLA SERIALS AND OTHER CONTINUING RESOURCES SECTION - STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN – 8 AUGUST 2010

Overview

1. What are Usage Statistics?

2. What are the uses of Usage Statistics?

3. Initiatives to collect Usage Statistics?

4. The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits)

5. Recommendations

6. Conclusion

What are Usage Statistics?

Definition: “Volume of user access to a resource” –(Shim and McClure, 2002)

• A Statistical Measurement

• What is being used – Content?

• Who is using it – User?

• How the resource is being used – Activity?

• When is the resource used?

• Where does the user prefer to access it from?

Uses of Usage Statistics

• To provide library performance indicators to paymasters

• To justify funding applications

• To inform collection development strategies

• To measure the performance of the resources

• To meet user needs

• To identify barriers to access

• To plan infrastructure and allocation of resources

Why Now?

• A general increase in the use of e-resources

• More than 70% of budget allocated to e-resources

• University of Florida 78% (Monica Metz-Wiseman, 2010)

• University of Sussex 73.33% (Hale,2007)

• University of the Witwatersrand 75%

Initiatives to collect Usage Statistics

• ARL E-Metrics project – Dec. 2001

• International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC)- mid 1990s, predominantly academic.

• National Information Standards Organization (NISO)- 2002

• Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) – Public libraries – early 2000

• Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources (COUNTER) -1st code released 2002, now on release 3.

The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits)

• An urban university in Johannesburg• Student population of about 25 000• Five faculties and 34 schools• Two main libraries and 14 branch libraries

• Total collection of 1,138,000 book volumes• 45,000 journal titles• E-resources

• 40 872 – total no. of journal titles in databases including overlapping titles.

• 29 079- unique journal titles in databases• 153 – full text databases

Wits 2010 budget

• Received enough budget to cover current subscriptions but not new resources

• Accommodating new content with limited budget

• Paradigm shift in renewal approach adopted

• Analysis of all aggregator databases subscribed to

• Analysis of all learned & professional societies databases

• Analysis of all publisher databases

Analysis of Aggregator databases

• Quantitative Analysis

• Qualitative Analysis

• Interrogation of the Joint Information Systems Committee – Academic Database Assessment Tool (JISC-ADAT)

Analysis of learned & professional society and publisher databases

• ScholarlyStats portal

• Counter compliant statistics

• WAM by login statistics

Findings and Discussions

• Aggregator Databases – overlap

• Learned and professional society database – well utilised

• Publishers Databases – well used

• General Resources – some resources not heavily used

(The Book Review Index)

Using Usage Statistics at Wits

• Guiding subscription choices

• Informing Information Literacy Programmes

• Informing Collection Management decisions

• Management of core collections

• Guiding decisions regarding access models

Recommendations

• Relevant content but low usage statistics

• Increase marketing

• Change access model

• Relevant content and high usage

• Invite vendors and negotiate for affordable access models

• Do content overlap analysis

Conclusion

Usage statistics at Wits were looked at holistically -

to build a strong, contemporary, accessible and above all sustainable Library collection for learning, teaching and research needs even in the smallest research areas.

Usage statistics were not looked at in isolation –

users’ needs and content overlap analyses were taken into account.

THANK YOU

Chiratidzo N. Chatikobo (Mrs.)

Chiratidzo.chatikobo@wits.ac.za

Tel. +27 11 717 1906

Fax.+27 11 717 1946