2014 Charleston Library Conference

These days, libraries are struggling with many challenges. Diminishing and flat materials budgets make analyzing usage statistics even more important for collection development decisions. There are many usage statistics collection and analysis programs on the market, such as 360 COUNTER, Intota Assessment, and EBSCO Usage Consolidation, to name a few, but they can be somewhat costly. Using their analysis features can be somewhat counterintuitive and cumbersome to librarians who do not use the product on a regular basis. For some libraries, careful analysis may show that it is less expensive to collect usage statistics data in house. With additional analysis and clever, but simple programming, a document could also be created in house that would not only simplify data presentation to subject selectors but also provide portability to show faculty exactly how journal subscriptions are being used.

Christina Torbert, Head of Continuing Resources at the University of Mississippi, will present on her analysis over two years of the cost in staff time spent collecting and reporting usage data, and how that cost compared to the quoted costs of vendor products.

Jeannie Castro, Electronic Resources Coordinator at the University of Houston, will present on how to take usage data from all access points and display the data in a succinct, easy to read format for subject selectors. She will discuss the scope of the project and share the code that was used to create the final spreadsheet.