Mary E. Jackson Senior Program Officer for Access Services Association of Research Libraries

www.arl.orgAssociation of Research Libraries

Next Generation Statistics for Libraries: CAUL Forum20 January 2003

Sydney, NSW

The ARL E-Metrics ProjectMary E. Jackson

Senior Program Officer for Access ServicesAssociation of Research Libraries

[email protected]


ARL New Measures Initiative

• Collaboration among member leaders with strong interests

• Specific projects explore different models

• Self-funded projects


ARL New Measures Initiative

• Make resulting tools and methodologies available to full membership and wider community

• Continue to collect, but limit/freeze modifications to existing descriptive measures


ARL New Measures Projects

• Demonstration project for service effectiveness measures– LibQUAL+

• Identification of measures that demonstrate a library’s contribution to student learning outcomes

• Investigation of role libraries play in support of the research process


ARL New Measures Projects

• Development of tools to address cost effectiveness of library operations– staff allocation, Assessing ILL/DD

Services study• Project to define usage measures

for electronic information resources– E-metrics Project


Electronic Serials Expenditures

Total Electronic Serials Expenditures, 1995-2001

-

20,000,000

40,000,000

60,000,000

80,000,000

100,000,000

120,000,000

140,000,000

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001

Year


Percentages of Acquisitions Dollars Devoted to Electronic Resources

0.00%

2.00%

4.00%

6.00%

8.00%

10.00%

12.00%

14.00%

16.00%

18.00%

1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001


Average Yearly Increases in Electronic Resources and Total Library Materials Expenditures

4.32%

37.28%

8.48%

47.46%

4.18%

12.86% 9.18%

23.22%

5.53%

22.5%

6.35%

24.81%

3.4%

27.06%

9.12%

32.69%

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1992-93 1993-94 1994-95 1995-96 1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-2000 2000-01

Average Increase in Library Materials Expenditures Average Increase in Electronic Resources Expenditures


Project Leaders

• Co-Chairs– Rush Miller, University of Pittsburgh, and Sherrie

Schmidt, Arizona State University• Information Use Management and Policy

Institute, Florida State University– Charles R. McClure, Wonsik “Jeff” Shim, and

John Carlo Bertot• ARL

– Duane Webster and Martha Kyrillidou


Project Participants• Alberta• Arizona State• Auburn• Chicago• Connecticut• Cornell• Illinois - Chicago• Library of Congress• Manitoba• Maryland• Massachusetts• Nebraska

• New York Public• Notre Dame• Pennsylvania• Penn State • Pittsburgh• Purdue• Southern California• Texas A & M• Virginia Tech• Western Ontario• Wisconsin• Yale


Vendor Statistics Working Group

12 major ARL vendors met with project team in Denver prior to 2000 ACRL Meeting

Academic Press/IDEAL *Elsevier/Science DirectLexis/NexisOvidBell & HowellGale Group ISI * †

netLibrarySilver Platter *EBSCOJSTOROCLC/First Search

* Unable to attend Denver Meeting† Nonparticipant in project.


Working Definition of Networked Services

Electronic information resources and/or services that users access electronically via a computer network:

1. From on-site in the library2. Remote to the library – but from a

campus facility3. Remote from the library & campus


Networked Information Resources

• Locally Licensed Databases • Regional or Statewide Consortia

Licensed Databases• Aggregated Databases• Publishers Databases• Publicly Available (Web) Resources


ARL E-Metrics Project: Phase 1

May-October 2000What do we know? Inventory of current practices at ARL libraries of statistics, measures, processes, and activities that pertain to networked resources and services.



November 2000-June 2001What can we collect? Identified and field tested an initial draft set of statistics and measures.



July 2001-December 2001What difference does this make? Build linkages to: educational outcomes/impact, research, technical infrastructure.


Recommended Statistics & Measures

• Patron Accessible Electronic Resources (R1-3)

• Use of Networked Resources & Services (U1-5)

• Expenditures for Networked Resources & Related Infrastructure (C1-3)

• Library Digitization Activities (D1-3)• Performance Measures (P1-3)


Patron Accessible Electronic Resources

• R1 – Number of electronic full-text journals

• R2 – Number of electronic reference sources

• R3 – Number of electronic books


Use of Networked Resources & Related Infrastructure

• U1 – Number of electronic reference transactions

• U2 – Number of logins (sessions) to electronic databases (db)

• U3 – Number of queries (searches) in electronic db

• U4 – Items requested in electronic db• U5 – Virtual visits to library’s website and

catalog


Expenditures for Networked Resources & Related Infrastructure

• C1 Cost of electronic full-text journals• C2 Cost of electronic reference sources• C3 Cost of electronic books• C4 Library expenditures for bibliographic

utilities, networks, & consortia• C5 External expenditures for bibliographic

utilities, networks, & consortia


Library Digitization Activities

• D1 – Size of library digital collection• D2 – Use of library digital collection• D3 – Cost of digital collection

construction & management(Collecting these data requires staff familiar with the digital environment.)


Performance Measures

• P1 – Percentage of electronic reference transactions of total reference

• P2 – Percentage of virtual visits of all library visits

• P3 – Percentage of electronic books to all monographs


Characteristics of Each Recommended Measure

• Definition• Rationale• Unit of Measure• Data source• Frequency• Process• Related Issues


R1 – Number of Electronic Full-text Journals

• Definition - Number of electronic full-text journal subscriptions – by individual institution or consortia licensing.

• Rationale – Documents degree of expansion of electronic subscriptions available – can be used to show good coverage & need for more funding.

• Unit of measure – the journal subscription


R1 – Number of Electronic Full-text Journals

• Data source – local or vendors.• Frequency – annual, monthly, etc.• Process – parse into database or

spreadsheet, update dynamically from local catalog or vendor record.


U1 – Number of Electronic Reference Transactions

• Definition - number of electronic reference transactions – via e-mail, WWW form, etc.

• Rationale – libraries are interested in tracking the development of new electronic services. Attempt to measure reference transactions through new electronic tools and services.

• Unit of Measure – request count, time it took.


U1 – Number of Electronic Reference Transactions

• Data Source – local server, manual tally, e-mail count.

• Frequency – daily, monthly, annually, etc.• Process – clarify process, identify activity

points, identify collectors of data, consolidate data.

• Related Issues –This measure may have to broken down into additional data types – time, type of query, type of interaction, scheduling issues, measures of quality and reliability.


Outcomes of the Investigation

• Mixed results• Participants wanted more definitive answers• Confirmed how difficult, but not impossible,

to come to consensus• Realized how dependent libraries are for

vendors to supply data• Recognized need for ongoing effort• Reaffirmed importance of using data for

decisions


E-Metrics Next Steps Call for participation among members to test

proposed measures for 2002/2003 (over 35 participants to date)– Examination of the deliverables from the first phases– Collect FY02 totals

• Compilation• Data analysis• Distribution for discussion

– Analysis of approaches– Best practices for work processes

• From E-metrics project• Locally developed


E-Metrics Next Steps

• Continued work with vendors through international COUNTER project

• Continued work with international standards activities

• Workshops and training to develop necessary data analysis skills


Project Documents

• Measures for Electronic Resources (E-Metrics)

Part 1: Project Background and Phase One ReportPart 2: Phase Two ReportPart 3: E-Metrics Instructional ModulePart 4: Data Collection ManualPart 5: Library and Institutional Outcomes

• www.arl.org/stats/newmeas/emetrics/


Additional Questions?

• Please contact:Martha KyrillidouSenior Program Officer for Statistics and MeasurementAssociation of Research Libraries

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]