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Enhancing life-long learning, teaching and research through information resources and services

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Fast, autonomous and verifiable:piloting a new method for gathering library usage statistics independently from the resource provider

Richard Cross, Nottingham Trent University

Joshua M Pyle, Dublin Six

UKSG Conference April 2014, Harrogate

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Abstract

Metrics about the use of library resources is a growing preoccupation for all library services concerned to demonstrate value-for-money on their resource budgets and prove that their customers are using the materials they acquire. In 2013 Nottingham Trent University became the first UK university to begin piloting the new AUDITOR application from US start-up Dublin Six. The AUDITOR combines sophisticated web traffic logging (at the network level) with a range of analytical and reporting tools to provide COUNTER-compliant usage data for library resources, which is collated and analysed independently of any publisher service. In contrast to the time-delayed (and ultimately unverifiable) data offered by publisher websites, the AUDITOR generates usage analytics based on the verifiable network traffic of the institution, producing reports which reflect near real-time usage. As well as having immediate value in itself, this autonomous usage statistics service will, as the product develops, support a range of proactive services designed to improve the library customer experience (through more timely responses to interruptions in online publisher services) and enhance collection management processes (by offering responsive analytics on events such as 'turnaways'). This session will introduce the key features of the AUDITOR application; explain how and why NTU chose to be such an early adopter of the AUDITOR; and describe how the library service at NTU will be leveraging the data and reporting tools that the AUDITOR provides to improve service management and delivery.

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Agenda

• The importance of usage data

• The challenge of partial usage data

• Resource usage management at Nottingham Trent University

• Attractions of the AUDITOR pilot

• Committing to the AUDITOR pilot

• The need for institutional buy-in

• Participating in the AUDITOR pilot

• AUDITOR demonstration

• Next stages and future developments

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The importance of usage data

• Enabling evidence based acquisition and subscription planning

• Supporting ‘cost per use’ and other value-for-money calculations

• Demonstrating of customer engagement (or disengagement)

• Informing collection management and profile review

• Tracking ‘anticipated’ against ‘actual’ resource use

• Underpinning cross-institution benchmarking

• Delivery quantitative data that can demonstrate– Library service’s resource match to learning, teaching and resource needs– The continuing case for the resource budget

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The challenge of partial usage data

• Some electronic publishers provide no usage data

• Some providers provide bespoke, idiosyncratic usage data

• COUNTER is a strong and widely adopted standard for journals, books and databases – but is silent on some critically important variables

• Next to no usage standards exist for non-standard, non-text based materials

• Libraries have access to range of other access and ‘log in’ metrics for resource platforms (GA, discovery portal, link resolver, Shibboleth, eZproxy or Athens log counts)

• No single all-encompassing framework for calculating electronic resource use across the online collection

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The issue with provider usage data

• Confidence and dependability

• Despite COUNTER, counting mechanisms are not transparent

• No ability to independently audit or verify

• Delay – after-the-fact data, released to the publisher’s schedule

• Instances where publishers have withdrawn and republished data

• SUSHI protocol has reduced manual overhead, but process can still be staff-resource intensive

• Provide ‘compliance’ with SUSHI, COUNTER and other standards can be ‘aspirational’

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Resource usage data management at NTU

• UStat (Ex Libris): SUSHI and manual COUNTER JR1, DB1 (from 2009)

• JUSP (JISC): SUSHI JR1 (from 2013)

• Manual: spreadsheets for BR1

• Manual: spreadsheets for non-COUNTER (recording variety of metrics)

• None: rump of subscription resource providers offering no data

• None: free-to-access, open-access resources outside of subscription

• Application usage data: Primo, SFX,

• System logs: Shibboleth, eZproxy

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Attractions of the AUDITOR pilot

Short-term

• Independent, verifiable usage data

• Real-time access to usage data

Medium to longer-term

• Collect data for non-COUNTER compliant resources

• Capture service interruptions, access fails and resource turnaways

• Enable user-responsive services in the event of failures and lock-outs

• Benefit from pro-active alerting of platform issues

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Committing to the AUDITOR pilot programme

• Met with Dublin Six at UKSG conference in 2012

• Discussed possibility of involvement in trialing the AUDITOR software during active first-phase development

• Libraries and Learning Resources at Nottingham Trent University has extensive track record of ‘early adoption’ of emergent library technologies and services

• Quickly won the backing of SMT of the library service to commit

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The need for institutional buy-in

• Library services and Information Systems (IS) teams at NTU have strong collaborative ethic

• Remained key for IS to be supportive of the pilot – because of the local network and data copying components

• Required extensive legal and contractual discussion to secure the sign-up– Location of the data– Access to the data– Exclusions from the data tracking– Governance– Change management

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Participating in the AUDITOR pilot

• Put simply – the AUDITOR is compromised of three components– Specialised logging software: deployed to the institutional network which

copies the imprint of ‘packets’ of network traffic being sent/returned to/from the web

– Analytical software: interprets and unpacks the raw web logs, mapping them to set of access behaviours on known resource providers web sites

– Reporting and services software: delivers analytics, reports and responsive services for librarians and end-users based on the analysed data

• For the pilot, LLR facilitated, with the support of IS, the deployment of Dublin Six’s servers and software to the NTU network

• IS provided expertise to configure environment, configure secure, managed access, ensure no compromise to the integrity, security or performance of the network

• Discussion began in April 2012, pilot began in early 2013

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Introduction to the AUDITOR

• Passive, Integrated Access Checking• Comprehensive Link Fault Detection

Holdings Verification

• Comprehensive, Real-time Consolidation • Contribution-level Granularity• Local, Indefinite Archival

Usage Logging

• Comparative, Integrated Availability• Comparative Performance

Performance Monitoring

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Catalog Integration – Holdings Verification

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Catalog Integration – Holdings Verification

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Catalog Integration – Holdings Verification

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Catalog Integration – Holdings Verification

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Catalog Integration – Performance Monitoring

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Catalog Integration – Performance Monitoring

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Catalog Integration – Performance Monitoring

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Catalog Integration – Performance Monitoring

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Next stages in the AUDITOR pilot process

• Library to validate, QA and compare AUDITOR usage data with resource provider usage reports

• Begin process of evaluating AUDITOR library reports and services

• Focus discussions with selected providers on opportunities and challenges (for them) of the AUDITOR approach

• Whilst remaining an active development partner, agree with Dublin Six the tipping points that will enable us to move from pilot to full-scale production

• Consider how best to merge, integrate, blend or supplement AUDITOR data with data gathered in UStat, JUSP, RAPTOR, and application usage data

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The AUDITOR: future developments

• Working to test and assist development of service layers of the AUDITOR

• With Dublin Six, exploring the potential for recording usage for non-standard library resources

• Investigate potential for combining tracking of Shibboleth, eZproxy and off-campus use

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Questions and comments?

Fast, autonomous and verifiable

Richard Cross, Resource Discovery and Innovation Manager

Libraries and Learning Resources, Nottingham Trent University

+44(0)115 848 4878 | richard.cross@ntu.ac.uk

Joshua M Pyle, Dublin Six