qualitative and quantitative methods in electronic collection management
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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
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
Expenditure on Journals
2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10
Journal Spend
Information Expenditure by Format 2010-11
Books 4%
eBooks 4%
Journals 68%
Databases 24%
Information Expenditure by Format 2010-11
Books 4%
eBooks 4%
Journals 31%
Big Deals 37%
Databases 24%
Evaluating the Big Deals: Requirements
• Systematic
• Sustainable
• Internal benchmarking
• Elevator pitch
• So what?
• Enable informed decision making
• Demonstrate smart procurement
New Approach
Quantitative: • Size
• Usage
• Coverage
• Value for Money
Qualitative: • Academic Liaison
• REF Preferred
• Reading Lists Review
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.
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
Subscribed Titles
• For each core title the cost, downloads, and cost-per-
download categorised: • Zero
• Low
• Medium
• High
• Cancel?
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?
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
Quantitative Reporting
• Systematic
• Sustainable
• Internal benchmarking
• Elevator pitch
• So what?
• Enable informed decision making
• Demonstrate smart procurement
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?
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
Reading List Review
Analysis of course reading lists:
• What are our academic recommending?
• Where is it published?
• How often is it recommended?
Quantitative & Qualitative Reporting
• Systematic
• Sustainable
• Internal benchmarking
• Elevator pitch
• So what?
• Enable informed decision making
• Demonstrate smart procurement
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…?
What they can’t do:
Closing thoughts
• Is it worth investing in this?
• Qualitative & Quantitative
• Danger of relying on cost-per-download
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
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/
