1. Qualitative &
Quantitative Methods in
Electronic Collection
Management
4th International Conference on Qualitative
and Quantitative Methods in Libraries
Limerick, Ireland
24 May 2012
Selena Killick
Library Quality Officer

2. Cranfield University
• The UK's only wholly postgraduate university focused
on science, technology, engineering and
management
• One of the UK's top five research intensive
universities
• Annual turnover £150m
• 40% of our students study whilst in employment
• We deliver the UK Ministry of Defence's largest
educational contract

3. Expenditure on
Journals
Journal Spend
2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10

4. Information Expenditure
by Format 2010-11
Books eBooks
4% 4%
Databases
24%
Journals
68%

5. Information Expenditure
by Format 2010-11
Books eBooks
4% 4%
Databases
24%
Journals
31%
Big Deals
37%

6. Evaluating the Big Deals:
Requirements
• Systematic
• Sustainable
• Internal benchmarking
• Elevator pitch
• So what?
• Enable informed decision making
• Demonstrate smart procurement

7. New Approach
Quantitative: Qualitative:
• Size • Academic Liaison
• Usage • REF Preferred
• Coverage • Reading Lists Review
• Value for Money
CONYERS, A., 2007. What do publisher usage statistics tell us? The Analysing Publisher Deal project from
Evidence Base. SCONUL Focus, no.40, pp.72-76, Available at:
http://www.sconul.ac.uk/publications/newsletter/40/25.pdf.

8. Quantitative Metrics
Including:
• Average number of downloads per title
• % of titles with zero downloads
• Average cost per title
• Usage of core titles
• Cost per full-text download
• Overall
• For each core title
• Three-year trends for most popular titles
• Number of core titles in Top 30 most popular titles

9. Subscribed Titles
• For each core title the cost, downloads, and cost-per-
download categorised:
• Zero
• Low
• Medium
• High
• Cancel?

10. Considerations
• When to measure from/to?
• calendar, financial/academic, or contract year?
• Which titles make up our core collection?
• Do we have access to all of the ‘zero use’ titles?
• What constitutes Low/Medium/High?
• What about the aggregator usage statistics?
• Do we trust the usage statistics?
• What is the size of the target population?

11. Excel Template
• Two main data sources:
• COUNTER JR1
• Subscription agent financial report
• Automated as much as possible
• Match formulas working with ISSNs to link title price to
usage/holdings
• All calculations are completed automatically when the
data sources are added
• Results fitted onto a one-page printout

12. Quantitative
Reporting
• Systematic 
• Sustainable 
• Internal benchmarking 
• Elevator pitch 
• So what? 
• Enable informed decision making 
• Demonstrate smart procurement 

13. Qualitative Measures:
Academic Liaison
• Who’s using it?
• Why?
• How?
• Who’s recommending it?
• How valuable is it?
• What will be the impact if we cancel?
• Teaching?
• Research?

14. REF Preferred Journals
• Each academic school compiled a list of journals
seen as being REF Critical
• Lists combined & analysed by Library staff
• Number of overlapping titles
• Number & cost of titles we do not hold in our
collection
• Usage of titles we do hold in our collection

15. Reading List Review
Analysis of course reading lists:
• What are our academic recommending?
• Where is it published?
• How often is it recommended?

16. Quantitative &
Qualitative
Reporting
• Systematic 
• Sustainable 
• Internal benchmarking 
• Elevator pitch 
• So what? 
• Enable informed decision making 
• Demonstrate smart procurement 

17. Using the results.
What they can do:
• Both qualitative and quantitative measures tell the
story of the resource
• Aid decision making
• Justify procurement
• Safeguard budgets…?

18. What they can’t do:

19. Closing thoughts
• Is it worth investing in this?
• Qualitative & Quantitative
• Danger of relying on cost-per-download

20. Looking Ahead
• Journal Usage Statistics Portal
• New reports = new internal processes
• Review of all budgets
• All Resources
• Systems
• Staff
• Services
• Demonstrating Value and Impact
• Resources
• Services

21. References
• CONYERS, A., 2010. Usage Statistics and Online Behaviour (2). In: G.
STONE, R. ANDERSON and J. FEINSTEIN, eds, The E-Resources
Management Handbook – UKSG. Burford: UKSG. Available at:
http://uksg.metapress.com/link.asp?id=084t98646x2rn62k
• CONYERS, A., 2007. What do publisher usage statistics tell us? The
Analysing Publisher Deal project from Evidence Base. SCONUL Focus,
no.40, pp.72-76, Available at:
http://www.sconul.ac.uk/publications/newsletter/40/25.pdf.
• Lib-Stats discussion list and archive: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/LIB-
STATS
• TAYLOR-ROE, J. and SPENCER, C., 2005. A librarian's view of usage
metrics: through a glass darkly? Serials: The Journal for the Serials
Community, 18(2), pp. 124-131.
• Joint Usage Statistics Portal (JUSP): http://jusp.mimas.ac.uk/

22. Thank You
Selena Killick
Cranfield University
s.a.killick@cranfield.ac.uk
Tel: 01793 785561