1. Where's the evidence?
The role of usage statistics in collection
management
Angela Conyers
Evidence Base, Research & Evaluation
Birmingham City University

2. Collecting usage statistics
• What are we doing it for?
• Who are we doing it for?
• What does it all mean?

3. 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

4. Who are we doing it for?
Different audiences:
• Library directors
• Academic staff
• Subject librarians

5. What does it all mean?
• What can the usage statistics tell us?
• What other evidence do we need?

6. 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

7. Collecting the evidence
COUNTER codes of practice:
• Journals and databases
• E-books
Dealing with publishers who are not COUNTER
compliant

8. Making it as easy as
possible
• KPI templates
• JUSP – the Journal Usage Statistics Portal
www.jusp.mimas.ac.uk

10. 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

11. 138 UK higher
education and
research council
libraries are in JUSP
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellf/3910635234/

12. 18 publishers Nature Publishing Group
American Association for the Oxford University Press
Advancement of Science Project MUSE
American Institute of Physics Royal Society of Chemistry
Annual Reviews SAGE
BioOne Springer
British Medical Journal Taylor & Francis
Publishing Group Wiley-Blackwell
Edinburgh University Press 3 intermediaries
Elsevier
Ebsco EJS
Emerald
Publishing Technology
Future Medicine (ingentaconnect)
Institute of Physics Swets

13. JUSP Purpose and benefits
• 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
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/418328695/

14. COUNTER usage reports
JR1
• 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
/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bionicteaching 2920562020/

15. • 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
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ragingwire/3395161474/

16. Using the JR1 and JR1a reports
• 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

20. 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

25. Adding value to usage reports
Adding value to JUSP
JUSP enhancements
• Adding subscribed or core titles
• What titles are in the deal?

27. How many titles are in the deal?
Project Muse JR1 for 2011 for a library with the
Basic Research Collection–
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
59% of titles in the JR1 are not in the library’s
deal and will show nil use.

28. JUSP enhancements
• Usage patterns of subscribed or core titles
• Identification of titles in the deal or collection
within the JR1 report
• Adding more publishers

29. Adding more value
• Costs
• FTE numbers
• Benchmarking

30. 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

31. Where’s the evidence?
• What are we doing it for?
• Who are we doing it for?
• What does it all mean?

32. Where’s the evidence?
Thank you!
angela.conyers@bcu.ac.uk
www.jusp.mimas.ac.uk